


Wolves In Disguise

by boldcreations



Series: Alpha Pack [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alpha Daryl, Angel Wings, Character Death, Daryl - Freeform, During the Apocalypse, Established Relationship, F/M, Fighting, Friendship, Lori Bashing, Marriage, Merle Being an Asshole, Motherly Carol, Outdoor Sex, Possessive Daryl, Protective Daryl, Psycho Shane, Rick Friendship, Romance, Sexual Content, Shower Sex, Tattoos, Walkers, Zombies, alpha Daryl personality, badass OC, before the apocalypse, body art, dark themes, graphic gore, not a/b/o, not werewolf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-24 04:14:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 44
Words: 151,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2567831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boldcreations/pseuds/boldcreations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie Knight meets Rick Grimes in his home town after Morgan saves his life. Right from the beginning, they have one thing in common; they are both looking for the ones they love. At the end of the world, what more can they do but trust and always have hope? And maybe they might just find what they're looking for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The People We Love

Rick Grimes lay back on the bed, his hands up above his head with his wrists bound to the bars of the headboard. He felt exposed in the shorts and open gown that he had worn from the hospital, the man sitting on the side of the bed with a knife before his eyes leaving him uncomfortable but unwavering. He let his eyes run over the length of the small hand blade, knowing that in the new world that he had woken up in it was better than nothing for a weapon.

“For Christ sake, Morgan, give the poor man a break.”

The female voice brought the attention of both men, seeing the woman standing in the doorway of the bedroom. She was holding a bag over her shoulder and dressed in all black clothing, her golden blonde hair pulled up and tucked under a baseball cap. Rick could see that she was wearing a hunting knife around the thigh of her right leg, the buckle keeping the sheath in place allowing him to gauge the amount of toned muscle she had on her thighs.

“Jay, stay out of this,” Morgan scorned, glaring over at her. She glared back, levelling him with her hazel eyes. Rick was taken aback by the light tone of them, the candle light in the room illuminating the colour further. They looked like molten gold, warm but dangerous.

“He doesn’t know what’s going on, Morgan. What man would run around in a hospital gown, with bare feet and no weapon to defend himself?” She stepped up to the bed and snatched the knife from Morgan’s hand, lifting it to cut the ropes that held Rick’s arms in place. He could see traces of sweat and dirt on her skin, not just on her hands but around her collar bone and shoulders as well. Unlike the other two, she seemed to spend much time moving about outside.

“He could be dangerous,” Morgan hissed out, but she just glared at him again as she returned his knife.

“He’s not; he could barely stand on his feet. Let a man recover, at least hear him out!” she snapped back, before looking down at Rick.

A woman, Rick couldn’t help but to think. She seemed stronger than Morgan was, maybe not by physicality, but her will and the way about her was empowered. Morgan looked hesitant, unsure about nearly all that he did. The woman, Jay, however, walked with her shoulders squared, her face set with determination. Her skin was tanned from outside work, the tee that she was wearing taut on her toned arms. He could make out the silent power that she had about herself, the markings on her right hand that proved she knew exactly how to wield that hunting knife and had taken the pain that came with learning.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said with a nod of his head as he rolled his raw wrists in his hands. They had cramped in the position he had been tied in, he wasn’t sure how long he had been there since he had been ambushed and saved all in one go.

“Sure,” she nodded, her eyes softening. “My name’s Jamie, but you can just call me Jay. No ma’am, please.”

Rick simply nodded his head in understanding, seeing her nod in return before turning to leave. The bag on her shoulder seemed to holding cans inside, the rattling of the metal telling him that she must have been out getting food when he first ran into Morgan and his son. Morgan cut the ropes on his ankles loose, allowing Rick to move his legs once more.

“Come on out when you’re able,” he finally said softly, resigned. Rick didn’t look at him, but glanced over to where the woman had disappeared out the door, pulling off her baseball cap as she went. He lay on the bed a short while longer, looking over at the far wall as he tried to process what had happened since he had woken that afternoon. His mind was moving a mile a minute as he tried to piece everything together, all of new world that he had seen and heard. He could hear Jay’s voice as she spoke to the other two, her tone having calmed since she had snapped at Morgan. It was still feminine but held a deeper baritone to Lori's, strengthening her outward roughened appearance.

Making his way from the bedroom minutes later, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as his feet dragged along the floor beneath him, Jay was the first to spot him. She offered a smile, catching him off guard, from her place at the small dinner table. She had pulled the hat off and fixed her hair into a bun at the back, her tanned face fully exposed. Her cheeks appeared more hollow than they should be for a woman her age and build, and her throat too delicate for someone that held the silent strength she did. He may have been new to all of this, but by what he had seen he knew'd she'd probably lost weight in the time he'd been unconscious in the hospital.

Not lingering too long, Rick moved into the living room of the home, two beds made up on the floor with another comfortable chair covered in blankets. He knew the home, he had been in it before, back when the family had lived there.

“Fred and Cindy Drakes,” Rick said to himself, seeing Morgan standing in the adjacent doorway to the room. “I knew them, I’ve been in here before.”

“This place was empty when we got here,” Morgan said quickly, defensively. “Never met ‘em.”

He continued to walk a circle around the room, looking over at all the changes that had been made. Furniture was missing, portraits removed from the walls, shelves emptied. Someone that had left in a rush, but took what they could of their family’s home. The windows were covered with several thick blankets, blocking the view of the outside world entirely. Rick stepped up to the nearest one, moving to part the center.

“Don’t do that,” Jay called softly from the other room, moving away from where she was helping with the food. Rick pulled his hand back, looking over to where she was standing beside Morgan. “They’ll see the light, it draws them.”

“There’s a lot more of them out there than usual,” Morgan added on, stepping away from the doorway to return to the table. Jay motioned Rick over, holding out her arm in an inviting gesture. She waited for him as she carefully shuffled his way over to her as Morgan continued talking. “I never should have fired that gun today.”

“Sound draws them in really well,” Jay explained as she placed a hand on Rick’s shoulder comfortingly, leading him to the table. “Now they’re all over the street. I barely got in here before more of them starting showing up. You can usually avoid them pretty well as long as you're not seen or heard.”

“It’s stupid, using a gun,” Morgan said with a shake of his head, looking down at the table. “It all just happened to fast, I didn’t think.” Morgan looked up to Jay as she moved back to her seat, motioning for Rick to take the forth seat at the table, the last one there.

“You shot that man today,” Rick said slowly. He remembered seeing it with his own eyes, the blood of the shot as the bullet ripped through the man’s head, staggering toward him on the street. Morgan hadn't hesitated, he had just pulled the trigger. Point blank.

“Weren’t no man,” Duane said, causing Jay and his father to look at him with warning glances. Duane seemed more concerned about his father, since Jay seemed to have a hint of amusement to her hazel eyes.

“What the hell was that out your mouth just now?” Morgan asked, causing Jay to grin in mirth, hiding the rise of her lips behind her hand so that she didn’t end of with the elder man’s wrath on her instead, even though he couldn’t raise his voice he could still make her feel like a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar.

“It wasn’t a man,” Duane corrected himself, looking between Rick and his father.

“You shot him, in the street, out front,” Rick said, stepping forward to the table as quickly as his weak and tired legs could take him. All three had their eyes on him, but it seemed that only Jay wasn’t looking at him like he had completely lost his mind when he was hit with Duane’s shovel. “A man.”

“It was a man,” Jay started solemnly, her amusement gone as she looked into the water inside her glass, watching the reflections of the lights around them as the liquid and solid warped and bended them to their will. “Once. That thing out there was a walker.” Rick looked to her for further explanation, but she was silent, withdrawn.

“Come on, sit down before you fall down,” Morgan invited, motioning to the same seat that Jay had a couple of minutes before. Jay had already placed some of the baked beans that were cooked onto the plate.

“Daddy,” Duane said before anyone could make a move to eat. Jay seemed to understand what was going to happen before the boy finished what he was saying. “Bless him.” She held her hand out to Duane and Rick, surprising the white male. Morgan held his hand out to his son and Rick as well, the three people that he had just met linking hands before him and waiting for him to complete the circle around the table. Jay’s right hand was calloused, something that he felt sympathetic about. It was clearly her knife and efforts to survive in the word that had given her the new roughness, and it should never have been that way. Not for a woman, or a child, or an innocent single parent.

Looking first at Duane and Jay’s linked hands, he couldn’t help but to notice how pale she looked as her long fingers held Duane’s smaller once, but when he took her other hand in his, her skin was so darkly tanned compared to his pasty pale.

“Father, we thank Thee for this food. Thy blessings. We ask You to watch over us in these crazy days,” Morgan prayed softly, looking over to Rick with a crucial as Rick looked over to Jay, her head bowed down in respect, her eyes closed. She looked peaceful. “Amen.”

“Amen,” Duane and Jay said together, retracting their hands. Jay squeezed Rick’s once softly, offering him one last smile before she pulled her hand back and turned her smile over to Duane. Even with the upturn of her lips, the contentment that the smile was meant to bring never once reached her eyes. They were hard, sad. They were the eyes of someone who had lived thought too much already.

“Hey, Mister, you even know what’s going on?” Morgan finally asked, only a couple of bites into the meal. Rick knew that the question would come, and he didn’t have any other answer than the best one. The truth.

“I woke up today,” he started, thinking back to the hospital. His heart dropped with dread at the thought, his stomach turning in disgust as the bodies of the dead returned to his mind, haunting him. He could see the woman that had been lying in the grass as he picked up the bike, half her body missing and clearly dead, reaching out for him. “I was in the hospital, came home and that’s all I know.”

“But you know about the dead people, right?”

“Yea, I saw a lot of that. Out on the loading dock, piled in trucks,” Rick said, trying not to think about the stink that had risen off the decaying bodies as he walked through the seemingly endless rows of white sheets covering the dead.

“No,” Jay said softly, shaking her head. She was serious, her once soft eyes hard once again. “Not the dead ones, not the ones that were put down. The ones that weren’t. Walkers.”

“Like the one that I shot today,” Morgan added in, explaining further. “’Cause he’d have ripped into you, try to eat you, take some flesh at least.” Rick listened to Morgan as he spoke, trying to soak in all he could about the things out on the streets that he could. He didn’t know everything that was happening, he was pretty sure that not many people did know what was happening, but he would take as much information as he could get.

“There’s one thing that you have to remember,” Jay finally said once Morgan had gone quiet for a moment, pushing the food around her plate silently, “Don’t get bit.” She looked up to meet Rick’s eyes as she spoke, holding his complete attention. “You’re bandage is what got these two so startled. A bite will kill you, infect you. If you get bit, you’re not going to last very long.”

“The fever sets in,” the elder man finished for her, “It burns you out, but then after a while you come back.”

Only a short hour later, the food was finished and all things packed away again. Rick had been given the extra mattress that Jay used from time to time, since she was the one that would be up on watch most of the night, and favoured the chair when she wasn’t. Morgan and Duane hand already curled up on the other two mattresses that were pushed together across the room while Jay moved about the house with haunting silence to check that there was no way that the walkers could get in.

He could see when she slipped down the stairs that led up to the top floor, her bare feet not making a single sound on the hardwood flooring. Her hair had been freshly brushed and she had changed from the black clothing that she had been wearing when he had first seen her. She was wearing a white tank top, free of dirt and dust stains, and a pair of sweat pants that looked too big to be hers. He could see the black straps of her bra drawn over her bony shoulders, bruises marring her flesh.

“All clear,” she announced when she stepped into the room, grasping Morgan’s shoulder as she did so. His hand lifted to hers, returning the tight grip for a moment before he returned his attention to his son. Jay moved over to where a bag was located on the ground beside the doorway, turning her back to Rick and the others. The sheriff was taken aback at the sight of two angel wing tattoos peaking around the back strap of her tank top.

“We call her Angel sometimes,” Morgan said, causing Jay to look over her shoulder at them, noticing that Rick was staring at her back. “She doesn’t like it though.”

“Why not?” Rick asked carefully, looking up to her hazel eyes.

“My boyfriend used to call me Angel. I…I don’t know where he is.”

Rick could see the haunting sadness return to her eyes as it had before, looking down to the ground as she pulled a long sleeved shirt from the bag to keep warm through the night as the air cooled. Rick could sympathize with her, he didn’t know if Lori and Carl had survived, he had a strong feeling that they were alright though, and he knew that he was going to find them.

“That’s who you’re looking for?” he asked, meeting her gaze as she as pulling the shirt over her head, pausing a moment before she slid her hands through the loose sleeves. Much like the pants, the shirt was loose on her, well-worn with holes around the collar.

She smiled to herself for a moment as she held the collar up to her nose, inhaling delicately. “This was his,” she mumbled softly, looking over to meet his saddened gaze. “One of the very few long sleeved shirts that he actually owned.”

Rick could understand the sorrow in her words, in her eyes. “I’m looking for people I love, too.”


	2. Every Step

Jay brought up the tail end of the group that Rick had become a part of the night before, her hand always on the hilt of the hunting knife that she had told him belonged to her boyfriend as well. She had promised herself that she would return it to him as soon as she met up with him again, because now she had a reason beyond love to find him. She looked around the empty halls of the station house for walkers that might be making their way on by, but so far everything had been clear for them.

Duane reached up to grab the front of her shirt, drawing her attention to where Rick was unlocking the doors. The lights were out inside, leaving everything darker than night because of the lack of windows. The darkness was unsettling for them all; in the darkness you couldn’t see what was there right in front of you. They couldn’t hear a single noise from inside, but that didn’t offer near as much reassurance as they would have wished. Rick shown a flashlight down the entrance hall, illuminating a fire extinguisher on the wall, coffee makers and food on the counters.

The place had been locked up tight enough that no one had gotten into it to ransack yet. Leaving it in a state of preservation from the world they had lost.

Rick entered first with his flashlight, shining around every corner that they passed, Morgan following up behind him with one of the lanterns that he had brought with him. Duane was sandwiched between his father and Jay, the only woman of the group stepping backward to make sure nothing caught them by surprise.

They headed straight for the change rooms and showers.

“Will the water actually work?” Jay asked as she closed the door behind them, making sure that it was completely shut and locking it. They guys all moved over to where the rows of showers were located, leaving Jay to linger behind. Rick began turning the nob of one of the showers, the water hesitating before blasting out into the tile flooring.

“The gas lines have been down for…maybe a month,” Morgan starting, looking over to Rick. No one wanted to have a cold shower, it wasn’t that hot outside.

“Station’s got its own propane system,” Rick started, holding his hand out to the water. The warm liquid ran along his arm, leaving him to revel in it for a moment before he turned his attention to the older man across from him. “It’s still on.”

“If you’re joking, that is very cruel,” Jay said from behind them, looking longingly at the water. As the only woman, she had the longest hair which meant the most body oils that were being stored up inside and on the strands.

“You can shower up first,” Morgan said, motioning to her. “You’ve deserved that much. Just because the world ended doesn’t mean we’ve got to be rude about it and forget our manners,” Morgan said as he stepped away, guiding his son toward the locker area so that Jay would have some privacy.

“There were a couple of women on the force, I could find you some clothes to change into if you’d like?” Rick offered, moving to follow the other two men out. Jay was still watching the falling water with longing eyes, nodding her head half-heartedly when Rick stood waiting for a reply. He laughed softly to himself before leaving her alone. “I’ll leave a towel on the hook.”

Jay didn’t hesitate to pull her soiled white tank top over her head, throwing it to the floor before repeating the action with her bra, pants and underwear, stowing her knife in her bag. Standing without a stitch of material, she pulled her hair carefully from the tie that she had put it in, sliding the band around her wrist for later use. She could still hear the guys as they spoke on the other side of the lockers, but she didn’t worry about any of them peeking.

As soon as the water touched her skin, her tense muscles seemed to just dissolve away. Smiling to herself, she ducked her head under the warm stream and groaned in pleasure as her fingers began to run through the dampening strands, parting them and allowing water the wash through. Arching her neck every which way, she let herself be caressed by the gentle pressure; she moved her body about in a passion of memories as the water washed away her worries, her fears. It returned that tiny bit of normalcy that gave so much in a small gesture.

Collecting the soap that sat on the small shelf in every shower, she quickly lathered herself up with the bar, making sure that every patch of skin was covered, not a single pore was left uncleaned. She spent more time than she ever remembered scrubbing at her arms, legs, chest, back, feet, face, hair. Her skin was red raw before she finally began to let the water wash away the soap. She found a couple of shave blades in one of the other showers and used one to quickly deal with her legs and underarms, having neglected them for a fair while.

Then the process of washing repeated.

Knowing that the men were waiting, she rinsed herself off for the last time, taking one final moment to stand under the warm current before she spun the knobs to turn off the shower. A towel was waiting on the hook, just as Rick had assured, and she wrapped the large blanket of material around her body before she collected her things and rounded the corner. They guys had finished collecting their own clothes to change into and were speaking dreamily about the showers.

“All yours,” she said as she leaned against the cold metal of the lockers. Duane immediately took off running to the showers—whooping and cheering—while the two men couldn’t help but to pause at the sight of a clean Jay. They could perfectly see the tan lines of a tank top, the rest of her skin covered in a golden hue from the sun. Her legs, smooth and hairless now, were defined by a strong amount of muscle, from before or after the end of the world they didn’t know.

“I picked out some clothes for you, some pants and shirts,” Rick started, turning around to pick up a small pile of clothes that had been sitting on the bench behind him. “The pants are uniform, but the shirts are just undershirts.”

“That’s fine, clean is clean,” Jay said as she stepped forward and took the clothes from him, dropping her bag onto the bench. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Rick said with a nod before he moved to follow after the other two. He glanced back once to see the tattoo on her back, but her long hair was covering it up.

Only when Jay heard the showers all start up did she look through the clothes that Rick had gotten for her. She was surprised to find that there were even undergarments there, although the underwear was slightly too small, the sports bra looked like it would fit well. Dressing quickly, she smiled at the feeling of unworn clothing on clean skin, instead of dirty clothes on equally dirty skin. She hadn't worn clean clothes in a fair amount of time, so she couldn’t be happier than in that moment.

Pulling on her boots and strapping her knife back onto her thigh, she could hear Duane start singing from the showers, causing her to smirk to herself, shaking her head. She tucked the extra shirt and pants into her bag for another time, bringing out her hair brush to try and remove the knots that had accumulated through her shower time. There hadn't been conditioner in the shower, and her long hair was nearly impossible without conditioner.

She was still tugging out knots when the showers stopped and the guys began to get changed on the other side of the locker. She fell quiet as she listened to Rick and Morgan speak, Duane having gone to change in a separate room. She listened to Morgan speak about Atlanta, and how they had originally been intending to go there before there was a mass panic.

“What about Jamie?” Rick asked softly, out of the blue, probably assuming she couldn’t hear them. She let her hands fall to her lap, her half brushed hair forgotten as she listened to them.

“She found us,” Morgan started, equally as soft as Rick, “We were looking for supplies in the abandoned stores when a walker blocked us in. I didn’t have my gun in reach, I’d put it down on a counter, and there was nothing else there to use. Jamie came up behind it and put her hunting knife through the back it its skull. I had panicked, and it nearly got us killed.”

“So you asked her to stay?”

“Yea, she knows a lot more about those things than we do. She’s travelled quite a bit, killed plenty of walkers if I’m guessing correct. You should,” Morgan hesitated in continuing, the sound of material shirting about as he continued to get dressed. “You should ask her to go with you. I know enough to keep myself and Duane safe, but you’re new to this. Besides, she’s looking for her man, she needs to get out there and move, not hide away like me and Duane.”

Jay looked over to the lockers that separated her from Morgan and Rick, her heart pounding in her chest. She knew that he was right; she couldn’t stay hiding away for much longer. She would never get anywhere if she didn’t start moving again soon. Rick was looking for someone just like she was; he understood why it was so important that he go to Atlanta. His family was probably there.

“I’ll talk to her,” Rick promised quietly, the conversation between the two men falling quiet as they finished getting dressed. Jay pulled at the remaining knots in her hair harshly, trying to make the job go by faster, before she threw her brush into her bag and rose to her full 5’7’’ height.

“Jamie, you all set?” Ricked asked from around the corner, waiting for an answer just encase he walked in while she was still getting dressed.

“All set,” Jay confirmed, silently wondering why he had switched to calling her by her full name all of a sudden. “Wish I had had some conditioner or something, though,” She teased gently as she followed along the lockers, seeing Rick look around the corner for her. “What’s next?”

“Guns.”

Jay followed Rick to the gun locker, seeing that there was still a lot missing from the racks, Rick voicing the same thing. He began pulling guns off the shelves and holders, checking them over to see if they were okay to fire. Jay pulled a sniper off the gun rack, looking it over carefully. She passed it over to Morgan after a moment, turning to examine all of the remaining weapons.

“Daddy, can I learn to shoot?” Duane asked as he looked up to his father with hope in his eyes. Jay glanced at Morgan’s face, knowing that he wouldn’t deny his son. “I’m old enough.”

“Hell yes, you’re gunna learn,” Morgan answered back right away, concentrating on his son as he rolled up the sleeves of his blue button up shirt. “But we got to do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon.”

“That’s right,” Rick threw in, passing a shotgun over to Jay, “It’s not a toy. If you pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that, Duane.”

“Yes, sir,” Duane said, seeing the seriousness on the officer’s face. Rick had turned to cop mode, all serious attitude and soft voice. He was in his element, he knew exactly what it was that he needed to do, and he was going to carry it out. He looked over to where Duane was packing ammo into the large black Sheriff’s bag that he had laid out, Morgan was testing the scope on the sniper rifle and Jay was making sure the load on the shotgun hadn't jammed from lack of use of the time Rick had been in the hospital.

“Hey, Jay, can I talk to you?” Rick finally asked carefully, causing her to look up from her work. She didn’t hesitate to nod and placed the shotgun into the bag of guns, turning to follow Rick out of the gun locker. He didn’t move far, but out of earshot of Duane and Morgan. The elder man watched them move off, a knowing look in his eye. “Look, I’ve got something I need to ask you.”

“Alright, shoot,” Jay said, her voice serious as her eyes held onto his. The white uniform shirt that she was wearing looked blinding in the fluorescent lighting of the room, her skin appearing darker because of the contrast.

“I wanted to give you a choice. You can come with me to Atlanta, maybe your boyfriend’s there or you can stay with Morgan and Duane. I’ve already spoken with Morgan, he thinks that it’s best if you come with me because he knows that you…you’ll be wanting to get back on the road and move,” Rick said carefully, watching her eyes as he spoke. She never once looked away from him, nodding her head in understanding, instead.

“I would like that,” she whispered softly. Rick could see the guilt in her eyes and knew that it was because of Duane. She had been there to help protect him for so long that it was strange just leaving him behind now.

“Well, alright then.”

They finished loading up the guns and ammo quickly, making two separate bags. One had the majority, the other held a few for Morgan and Duane, and all but the boy held one on their person. Jay carried a sniper over her shoulders, the black strap pressed between her breasts as she jogged up the steps that led out of the station from the basement.

“Conserve your ammo, you never know how fast it goes until it’s gone,” Rick said as he moved up the short set of stairs, carrying the large bag of guns in one hand and a duffle bag in the other. “It goes real fast, especially at target practice,” he said over his shoulder, looking down to Duane briefly. Jay helped Duane carry his and his father’s things to the truck they had, popping the trunk open.

“Look, Duane, there’s something I got to tell you,” Jay said suddenly as the boy tossed a bag of clothing inside. He was still for a moment before looking over to her, seeing that she appeared slightly upset. He could hear Rick talking calmly with his father and fell sullen.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m going with Rick,” she explained softly, kneeling down to his height. “I need to find the man that I love, just like he needs to find his family. I can help teach him the ropes, too.”

“We won’t see you again?” Duane asked sadly, seeing the pain that entered her expression when he asked.

“I don’t know. I hope that we do, sometime in the future,” she said softly as she lifted her hand up to adjust his sweat shirt-painfully, it reminded him of his mother. “You take care, you hear? Do everything you’re daddy tells you,” she said carefully, her voice nearly cracking. She had been with those two for so long, it was strange to be leaving them suddenly.

“I promise,” Duane said softly, before he was pulled into a hug by the woman that had nearly come to be a second mother to him. She ran her hand over the short curls of his hair, smelling the soap on his skin. She closed her eyes to fight away tears before she pulled away, offering him one last smile before the both of them turned to head back over to the men. Jamie didn't show her pain to having to leave. Her shoulders were squared and her eyes were set with determination-she had spent too much time hiding away from the world, losing ground from her true goal. It was time to move on.


	3. True In All

Jay leaned back against the passenger door of the car, looking about at the scenery that passed them by. Rick started speaking into the radio, trying to get a hold of anyone that could hear them on the emergency channel. She glanced over at him quickly as he paused for a moment, giving a chance to anyone that may hear him and try to speak back before he began again.

“Broadcasting on emergency channel, we’ll be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. Anybody reads, please respond,” He said into the radio, taking his finger off the button and lowering it down as he kept his eyes on the road before him. It wasn’t really other people that he was looking out for, but perhaps a place to find gas or a walker in the middle of the road. There was a better chance of hitting a Siberian tiger than finding someone wandering along the side of a road, alive.

“Rick-”

“Hello, hello, can anybody hear my voice?” Rick said into the radio, interrupting Jay before she had a chance to say anything. She stopped and looked down at her lap, understanding that since he had only woken the day prior that he probably still had a hope of other people hearing him. He still had hope. “Anybody out there, anybody hears me, please respond,” Rick said more desperately, causing Jay’s heart to ache. “Hello, can you hear me voice? Hello? Hello, can anybody hear me voice?” Rick asked through the radio.

“Here, I’ll do it for a while,” Jay finally offered, holding out her hand. Rick looked at her a moment, glancing down at her open hand before placing the radio into her palm. She nodded to him before raising the radio to her mouth. “Broadcasting on emergency channel,” She starting, having already memorized what he had said from the amount of times that she had heard him say it. “We’ll be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. If anyone reads, please respond.” She looked over at Rick out of the corner of her eye as she spoke, seeing him nodding his head along with one she said.

She repeated the lines a couple of more times, getting no reply with every pause in between. Rick finally seemed to understand why she had tried to stop him from repeating it all the time and eventually placed a hand over the radio and lowered it away from her mouth.

“Let’s take a break for a short while, a’right?”

“Alright,” She agreed carefully, letting him take the radio and hook it back up against the dash. She leaned back in her seat and looked at the passing trees, the sun shining through the canvas above in small patches.

“So,” Rick started, causing her to smirk to herself at the bland attempt to start a conversation, “This boyfriend of yours, why don’t you tell me about him?” He asked carefully, glancing at her as he spoke. She didn’t tense up like he had expected she would, so she was probably fine with the question.

“On any given day, you wouldn’t like him,” She said right away, grinning to herself. “People always used to say me ‘what do you see in him, Jamie? He’s a nasty ol’ redneck!’ but I always saw him differently than others. Yes, he swears, he’s crude, most times he doesn’t have manners, and sometimes he smells, but he’s true in all he says and does.” She wore a smile on her lips as she looked over to him, seeing Rick’s surprise.

“Redneck?” He asked jokingly, seeing her smile broaden until he could clearly see a dimple on her cheek.

“Yea, he kinda is. Remember how I said the shirt I have is one of the few with sleeves? I wasn’t joking. The rest are all either cut off or a muscle shirt of some kind,” She explained, her mood brightening as she remembered the man that she was searching for. “He spent a lot of time outdoors, he loved to hunt and all that. I would buy him a pack of white wife beaters and the next time I saw them they’d be unrecognizable!”

“I know what you mean, my son Carl had a bad habit of always finding the one dirt patch in our backyard,” Rick said with a smile of his own. “Lori would always say ‘the stain’ll come out, I can get the stain out’ but we’d still have to go shopping for new clothes because all the ones he owned would have mud stains, grass stains, food stains.”

“Oh, God, even if I could get the stains out, those shirts could not be salvaged. They were rank after he got back from hunting, or work. He did construction, so he would come home stinking like grease, or oil, it’d be all over his clothes and there was nothing I could do.”

“What’d you do before all this?” Rick asked as he looked over to her, noticing the way that wrinkles appeared around her eyes when she smiled, her laugh lines were prominent from always being there. She must have smiled a lot in the past.

“Believe it or not, I was an architect,” She answered, grinning in pride.

“Is that how the two of you met?” Rick asked, putting two and two together.

She shook her head, though, and said, “No, we knew each other back when we were teenagers. Best friends, I guess you could say. We didn’t actually date until two years ago. It was on my twenty sixth birthday, New Year’s.”

“New Years? Really?” Rick asked in shock, looking over to her. He knew a couple of people that were born on New Year’s Day, but not many.

“Yep, I was born around noon, but it’s still New Years day. There was one more person in that hospital born closer to midnight,” She elaborated, grinning again. “My mother always used to tell me about how everyone was paying so much attention to me, like I was some sort of miracle, just because I was born on the first day of the year. When he found that out, he laughed and said ‘at least I’ll never forget your birthday!’ And it’s true, he never has.”

“Lucky, I know a lot of people that get into trouble because of forgotten dates,” Rick said with a smirk, thinking of himself and the few nasty mishaps that he’d had.

“Oh, he’s forgotten important dates, just not that one!”

The car was filled with their relaxed laughter for a moment, but the vehicle was soon silent once more. It wasn’t as tense as it had been before they spoke, but they weren’t completely relaxed either. In the time that Jamie had been telling him about her boyfriend, they had both had a moment to forget about the fact that the world had gone to ruins. Now that they were silent again, they were forced to remember.

“You said,” Rick started, getting her attention once again, “You said that he was different than the others, that he was true in all he said and did. What did you mean?” Rick asked carefully, looking briefly into his rear view mirror.

“He’s never lied to me, if there’s something he has to say, he says it. Even if it’s harsh or rude; that’s gotten him in trouble a couple of times, actually. But I love him for it, because there are so many people out there that’ll hide behind lies, thinking their protecting you. He let me know every day how he felt, maybe in not so many words, but he would always make sure that I understood. He also didn’t do things just for the hell of it, but for a reason. If he had to leave the apartment at three in the morning, there was always a damn good reason.”

“That doesn’t sound too good,” Rick said, seeing that the statement had come out with a scowl. It wasn’t just a made up scenario.

“Let’s just say that I hate his brother,” She answered easily. “But, enough about me and my love life, tell me about your wife, and your son,” She said easily, turning to face him slightly in her seat, her back toward the passenger window. Flecks of sunlight hit her pulled back hair, making it look like glowing gold, a halo around her head.

“I wouldn’t know where to start,” Rick said as he looked toward the road, taking a careful turn when they hit a bend in the road. “Lori…is the woman that I never would have imagined being with. She’s just too good for me, in so many ways. She’s the perfect mother, always there whenever Carl needs her.”

Jay could see the complete love and devotion on his face as he spoke, the lines of his face softening as he spoke of his family. “She sounds beautiful,” She said softly, seeing his lips twitch into a smile.

“She is,” He agreed immediately. “And not just on the inside, but the outside as well. Long brown hair, brown eyes, she’s a bit shorter than you,” Rick described as he looked over to Jay, seeing that she was smiling at him. She couldn’t stop herself from grinning at the happiness that touched his face. “Carl took after her a lot, brown hair with that kind attitude. Everyone says he’s got my temperament, but I don’t quite see it.”

Jamie laughed softly, “No one does. Everyone always told me I looked exactly like my mother did at this age, but I’ve seen photos and I don’t see it!”

They were both smiling as they drove out of the trees and onto open road, fields surrounding on either side. A house appeared up the road, a farm from the looks of it. Jay squinted her eyes against the sun to try and see better, but it far away still she could barely make out any details.

“Hopefully they have fuel,” Rick said as he looked down at the remainder of the gas they had, “We won’t make it too much further on this tank.” Jay looked over to the gauge inside the dash and saw that there wasn’t even enough for another mile.

“We’ll take a look inside. What if we can’t find anything? Do we risk not finding another house before the car dies? It’s a lot more dangerous on foot,” She said as she began to tense up again.

“We’ll just have to decide as we go along,” Rick answered after a beat, seeing her nod out of his peripheral vision. They were pulling into the short drive of the home a few short minutes later, Rick immediately turning the ignition off before there was a chance of more gas going to waste. Jay opened the car door to stand up, looking around for any sign of walkers in the immediate area. Rick took that time to flip down the sun visor before him and pull free the family picture that he had brought with him. Jay didn’t comment on his delayed time in exiting the car, knowing that he was taking a moment.

“Doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” Jay said as he rose from the vehicle, popping the trunk before he got out. Rick took a moment to examine the house as well, no car in the drive and no garage in sight.

“Hello!” He called, closing his door and walking a few steps around the front of the vehicle. “Police officer out here!” He yelled, lilting his hat up to look up better. Jay leaned back to try and see around the side of the house better, but there didn’t seem to have been any activity on the property for a while. The lawn was uncut and the bushes had grown untamed. “Can I borrow some gas?”

“Maybe take a look through the windows?” Jay suggested, glancing at him quickly. He nodded in response and stepped forward toward the house, Jay hanging back silently beside the door to the car. Rick stepped up to the house quickly, pulling his hat off before he got to the front door. He was able to glance inside from the glass window on the top half of the porch door, the sun that shown through the window illuminating most of the house.

He knocked a couple of times on the door to try and draw the attention of anyone inside, calling out again. There was still no answer and he moved over toward the window a couple of yards away. Leaning slightly to get a better look, he felt his stomach twist into knots as he looked in at the living room of the home. A man sat on the couch, the top of his head blown open with a gun in his hand. A woman lay on the floor at his feet, just as dead as her husband. Flies covered their bodies, moving around the room. Written in blood on the wall were the words GOD FORGIVE US.

Stepped back from the window, he quickly stepped down off the porch before he was sick, bending down to collect himself. Jay watched from the car, noticing the change in his demeanour immediately. She ran over when she saw that his face had gone sheet white, his breaths laboured like he’s been running.

“Are you alright?” She asked carefully, placing a hand on his back. She didn’t need to ask him to know what had gone on inside that house.

“They…they just gave up,” He whispered, shaking his head as he looked at the dirt beneath their feet.

“A lot of people gave up, Rick,” She said softly, leading him over to a stone table and bench that decorated the side yard under the shade of a tree. “There wasn’t much else that people thought they could do. They didn’t believe there was a way of escaping it and they didn’t want to die painfully like so many others. They opted to have the choice of dying on their own, instead of having that choice made for them.”

“But…it’s not right. What if…what if they-” He stopped talking when he felt his stomach turn, place a hand over his mouth for a moment. Jay rubbed a hand on his back in comfort, looking away from him to give him a sense of privacy. She heard when he spat on the ground between his feet, trying to alleviate the nauseous feeling. Her attention was momentarily diverted when she spotted a fenced pasture behind the house.

“Rick, do you have anything against horses?” she asked suddenly, drawing the man’s attention. He looked up at her with a strange stare, but when he noticed that she wasn’t even looking at him he turned to look back to see what she was staring at. A beautiful Chesnutt stallion stood grazing, watching them carefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all who have been reading so far, and for the Kudos on this story!


	4. Instincts of Survival

You know that feeling you get in your stomach when something just isn’t right? Like you know that someone’s lying, or when there a really bad storm that’s about to hit? That nauseating, intestines in knots, heart in your throat, sweaty palm, adrenaline pumping feeling; the feeling that makes you want to tuck tail, run and hide under a rock? People really should start listening to that feeling, that gut feeling. Trust your gut. Human instinct. Survival.

“I really don’t like this,” Jamie said from behind Rick on the saddle, looking over his shoulder as she leaned her head around the various guns that protruded from the bag over his shoulder. Her eyes looked over the large buildings of Atlanta, completely deserted by the looks of it. There wasn’t a single sound from inside, it was a ghost town. A dead town.

“Neither do I,” Rick said carefully, looking over the tall office buildings in the distance. “But we can’t turn back now,” he added on, looking at her own his shoulder. He could easily see the fear in her hazel eyes, the doubt. She had been expecting to have seen someone, anyone, by now.

“Are you sure? I think we can,” she said, turning her eyes to look at him instead of the city. Rick turned forward once more before nudging the stallion forward again, having finally gotten the beast to stop running when he wanted him to. Jamie’s hands tightened their grip on the sides of his shirt as the horse moved toward, her entire body tight and coiled like a wound up spring. She never once relaxed as they slowly made their way through the city, winding around the forgotten cars, passing buildings, railroads, and bridges.

Rick could hear Jamie’s breathing speed up as they made their way deeper and deeper into the city, further away from a chance to turn back and escape. Her hands kept their death grip on his shirt, never releasing it for a moment of relaxed muscles and tendons. She kept her mind on the gun strapped to her back and the slightest of movements around them. Her eyes fell on the many types of military vehicles around them as they moved through a cluster of ruined helicopters, buses and cars. She looked over to a bus they were passing by, seeing a couple of dead passengers still inside.

Then they stood up.

“Rick,” she hissed out, a moment before the horse jumped away from the bus, neighing loudly. Rick tried to calm the horse, stopping it from running in fear at the clear threat that was upon it and the two on its back.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a few,” Rick assured, looking over to the two walkers that were stumbling off the bus after them. “Nothing we can’t outrun.” Jamie looked back to the walker that was closest to them, so tempted to shoot the damn thing but knowing that it would only draw more out of the woodwork. There were three walkers left behind by the time they got off that street, moving a large tank that held the body of a dead man being eaten by crows.

They both froze, however, when they heard the faint rumbling of helicopter blades. Rick spun from side to side, looking behind him and forward again, eyes on the sky, as he tried to locate the helicopter. Jamie placed a hand over her eyes, releasing Rick’s shirt for the first time, to try and assist in finding the direction that the sound was coming from.

“There,” she said, pointing to one of the tall office buildings that held the reflection of the helicopter. Rick squinted to see better, before spurring the horse forward to try and follow after the direction the helicopter was going in, trotting through the empty streets. Jamie’s heart picked up in hope, realizing that there must still be some functioning military or government of some kind of there were helicopters in the sky. Rick moved to round the corner onto the adjacent street but came to a dead stop.

As did each of their hearts.

Walkers. Hundreds of walkers.

“Run!” Jamie yelled from behind Rick, pushing at him. He didn’t hesitate to do so and quickly turned the horse around and spurred him on, letting him gallop back in the direction that they had come. The starved dead began to run and stumble after then, reaching for them in desperation for food. They moved far faster than any walkers Jamie had encountered in the past. These bastards were hungry. She was extremely positive that her heart actually stopped beating for several seconds in the time it had taken the horse to turn around.

More walkers began to appear from all directions, having heard their commotion and moving to find the source. Jamie’s stomach was in knots again, her eyes darting around every which way to try and find an escape, any escape. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. She chanted in her head, lifted up her legs and looked around herself as more walkers crowded, Rick cursing as he tried to spin around and find a way out. The stallion reared up as walkers stood before it, preventing an escape.

The frantic movements of the horse shook off both Rick and Jamie, their bags falling to the ground as they landed hard on the pavement, bruising soft tissue and bones. The stallion neighed loudly as the walkers piled onto it, devouring it. Jamie ripped the hunting knife from the black canvas and metal sheath it was held in, pulling it before her and slashing at a walker that approached, gouging into its eye.

“The tank!” Rick yelled, kicking at walkers that tried to claw after him. Jamie swung wide with her hunting knife, driving it into the temple of another walker before making a run for the opening, watching as Rick disappeared beneath to escape the crowds that were following him. She could see as they began to herd toward Rick, the sounds of gunshots going off as he tried to lessen the amount crawling after him.

One, two, three, four walkers dropped as Jamie slit throats, gouged into the soft tissue of their eyes and temples, heading toward the tank. She heard the sound of the bottom closing, knowing that Rick must have been inside. Jumping onto the top, she heard the top opening and Rick’s head appear only a second before she leapt in, tackling him to the ground and dropping her knife all at the same time. The lid fell shut again with nothing else left to keep it open, a thundering boom echoing inside. Jamie rose back up and sealed it off, just in case.

She kept her hands tight on the lock, her chest heaving with her heart beating hard against her ribcage. Had she not known better, she would have thought that it was going to burst right through her sternum at the rate that it was pounding. She looked over when she heard Rick moving about, watching as he pulled the gun from a dead soldier beside him.

A scream tore from her throat when the soldier turned its head toward Rick. Rick turned to looked back when he heard her scream, seeing the open eyes of the once dead man, before raising it gun beneath its chin and firing. The resounding echo of the blast caused Jamie to grip her head in pain, her ears ringing louder than anything she had ever experienced before. She groaned in pain as her hands fell over her ears, her head falling to rest on the cold floor of the tank.

“Oh, God,” she gasped out, barely able to hear her own voice. The ringing began to die down slowly, leaving her disoriented and gasping.

“Are you alright?” Rick asked desperately, reaching out for her. She didn’t lift herself up right away, feeling his hands gripping at her arms and shoulders. “Are you bit? Did they hurt you?”

“No, I’m fine. My fucking head,” she cussed, sitting up carefully. “What about you?”

“Same.”

Jamie pulled herself up against the wall of the machine, resting on the cool surface. Her head still pounded, her heart still raced and her limbs were shaking more than someone would if they were freezing to death. She pulled the sniper rifle off her shoulder when it dug into her flesh, throwing it to the ground in anger. They were stuck.

“Now what?” she panted out, looking over to Rick. He was checking the bullets in the gun clip that he had gotten from the dead solder—well, now dead soldier.

Rick didn’t reply, simplly resting his forehead on the gun in his hand. She watched him carefully, knowing exactly what was going through his head at the present moment. She opened her mouth to speak again when the familiar sound of static from a radio drew her attention, Rick looked over at the same time.

“Hey you,” A young male voice called through the radio, surprising both adults and leaving them stunned into frozen silence. “Dumbass. Yea, you in the tank.”

Jamie looked over to Rick slowly, left in a state of utter shock. Her eyes were wide and her jaw was slack, mirroring a look much the same as Rick. He slowly lowered the gun as he turned to look back at her as well. Neither of them moved as they tried to come to terms with what the fuck was happening, and if they had actually just gotten out of that shit alive. Who the hell had seen them? How did they know they were in the tank?

“Cozy in there?”

Jamie dove for the radio at the same time Rick tried to, the taller of them two colliding their head on the top of the roof when they tried. Jami fell to her side as she snatched the radio off its cradle, hitting the button and bringing it to her lips as she turned to face Rick, who was still trying to recover from the hit he took to his head.

“There are two dumbasses in here, technically,” she said through the device, seeing Rick looked to her in near exasperation.

“There you are,” The young voice sighed through, relieved, “You had me wondering. The guy under the tank lived?”

“Tanks have openings on the bottom,” she answered back, wondering why the hell she was having a causal conversation when there is a chance she may be dead in the very near future if she and Rick didn’t find a way out of that goddamn machine. “Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?” she asked, rolling onto her back when the ledge of metal began to dig against her hip bone.

“Yea, I can see you, you’re surrounded by walkers. That’s the bad news,” he said through. It seems like he was whispering. Rick snatched the radio from her hand, the cord stretching to its limit as he pulled it to his face.

“There’s good news?”

Short reply, “No.”

“Listen,” Rick started, “Whoever you are, I don’t mind telling you, I’m a little concerned in here,” Rick growled into the radio, looked around as they heard walkers clamouring around on top of the metal structure they were stuck in.

“Oh, man, you should see from over here. You’d be having a major freak out,” the man said through the radio, sounding deeply unsettled. Jamie snatched the radio from Rick’s hand, glaring at the device as she pressed the button down.

“That doesn’t help us, you little shit!” she nearly yelled out before Rick took the radio back from her, scolding her with a look before he quickly pressed the button down again.

“Got any advice for us?”

“Yea, I’d say make a run for it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jamie groaned out as she fell back against the floor of the tank again, her hands rising up to wipe at the sweat that completely covered her face and left her hair to stick to her skin. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine that she was not stuck in an air tight container with cannibalistic dead people walking around and on top of said container. She felt like scratching her own face off, truth be told.

“That’s it?” Rick asked into the radio, “Make a run for it?”

“Might not be as dumb as it sounds!” the guy defended quickly, “You got eyes out here. There’s one geek still up on the tank, but the others have jumped down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down.” Jamie felt a lurch of nausea at the thought of the poor animal, a jolt of confusion as well when he said ‘geek’ instead of walker. She hadn't heard that term before. “You with me so far?”

“So far,” Rick confirmed.

“Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they’re distracted, you stand a better chance. Got ammo?”

“It’s all in the bag,” Jamie groaned from on the ground.

“In that duffle bag that I dropped on the ground out there, and guns. Can I get to it?”

“Forget the bag! It’s not an option, what do you have on you?”

“Hang on,” Rick said as he quickly dropped the radio and moved to the run that he had collected from the soldier. Jamie pulled her sniper rifle back toward herself again, checking to see that it was still fully loaded from when she and ricked and ditched the cruiser. He moved over to the other side and checked the soldier for any more ammo that he may have had, but found none. Jamie pretended not to see when he paused to look at a grenade that had been on the top shelf.

“Nothing?” she asked desperately, drawing him back to attention. Rick moved over to the radio again, snatching it from the floor quickly.

“I got a Beretta with one clip, fifteen rounds.”

“Make ‘em count, jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There’s an alley in the street maybe…fifty yards. Be there.” Rick paused as he looked over at Jamie, seeing that her body was still tense, but the new found hope had set the determination into her shoulders again. She still looked as petrified as a deer caught in the headlights, but she was doing her best to push it down. Blood was covering the white shirt he had found for her and was smudged on her face from when she had wiped at the sweat. Walker blood. She looked deadly, out of control.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Rick asked through the radio quickly.

“Have you been listening, you’re running out of time!”

“He’s right,” Jamie said as she pulled the sniper strap onto one shoulder, just encase she needed to use it. “We need to get moving.” Collecting her bloodied hunting knife from the floor, she poised herself in a crouched stance as Rick got himself ready to pop the top of the tank and make a run for it. He shared one last quick look with Jamie before he hit the switch to open the top and stood, rising from the tank quickly.


	5. Freedom of Imprisonment

Jamie watched as Rick cleared the opening in the tank and immediately sprang up after him, muttering a prayer to anyone or anything that might be listening to her. She felt sick with the amount of adrenaline pumping through her system at the moment, her arms shaking and her legs tensed up. She pulled herself out of the tank in one fluid motion, looking over to where Rick was jumping off the tank. He hit the ground and rolled, crying out at the shock of pain from the collision. Holding onto her hunting knife tightly, Jamie pulled herself up onto the roof of the tank, freeing her legs from the opening, and leapt after Rick as he pulled himself up. 

A walker blocked her path off the tank, causing her to tense in annoyance. Bastard, she thought in rage. All of her pent of anger, annoyance and fear coiled up into her muscles as she took hold of the edge of the tank and swung her leg around to plant the toe of her steel toed boot into the side of the walker’s head. A sickening snap sounded, accompanied by the disgusting tearing of flesh as the walkers head was torn from its neck, only a strip of skin holding it on the body. She didn’t stop to marvel at the disgusting surprise of it and leapt over the motionless body to the ground.

Three walkers stepped into her path before she could chance running after Rick as he started down the street.

“Rick!” She screamed, but didn’t move after him, looking to her left, she saw an opened in the walkers and took it, pulling her gun from her shoulder and taking hold of the trigger. She used the end of the gun to push walkers out of her way so she didn’t use all of her ammo, her feet thundering on the ground as she bolted toward the alley across the street that the kid at told them to move to.

“Run, Jamie!” Rick’s voice yelled from somewhere to her right. “I’ll find you! I promise! I’ll find you!”

She didn’t need to be told in the first place, let alone twice, and let her feet carry her as quickly as she could from the street. She pulled the strap of the gun onto her shoulder once she was in the alley, the amount of walkers diminishing to only a handful. She dug her knife into the eye of one that was in her way, ripping it back out and resuming her run. The speed that she was able to reach would have put Olympic track stars to shame.

A fire escape in a deserted alley soon became her safe haven and she jumped to reach the ladder, using her arm muscles to pull herself up a couple of rungs until her feet could hook onto the bottom one and she was able to climb the remainder of the way. None of the windows were open along the escape, so she didn’t worry about any walkers sneaking up on her from above.

The metal was cold and reassuring on her skin as she pressed herself against one of the railings, trying to disappear. The walkers would probably all have resumed their search for Rick and the kid, but she wouldn’t be moving from her place for a long time, of that she was certain. You couldn’t have bribed her off that fire escape with the promise of a fresh steak dinner with potatoes, butter and beer.

She could still hear gunshots in the distance that were close enough to be Rick’s, before things went quiet again. Looking above herself, she noticed that the fire escape went all the way up to the roof of the building. A roof was better than a grated metal fire escape where walkers could see her. Making sure that there weren’t any that had followed her into the alley and give away her position, some of the dead citizens walking passed the alley but not looking at her, she carefully began to make her way up.

The knife never left her hand, her gun never left her shoulder and her set shoulders never relaxed. She worked her way up the escape level by level, wishing that she had gotten a better sleep the night before, or had taken up Rick’s advice and slept in the car. Lifting herself onto another level she took a moment to pause and glance back down at the alley that sat stories below her. There was one walker wandering its way toward the street, toward the commotion of the other dead people.

She remained still and silent until it had left, leaving everything deserted again. She leaned against the brick of the building and felt her eyes burn, fighting tears. She tried to take deep breaths to keep calm, but everything that had happened up until then was so much that she felt like she was going to explode at any moment. She didn’t know what she was going to do, if she tried to run she could run into more hordes of those things, if she stayed she’d die eventually. Rick didn’t even know where she was.

I’ll come for you!

No one had said that to her since the beginning of all this crap. She had never once heard someone promise to put their life on the line to save someone that they hadn't even known more than two days. She wished she had the chance to meet the kid that had saved them in the tank. She imagined he’d have been an awesome guy. Most of the time she had always been told ‘you get lost, and I’m leaving your ass behind’ or ‘fuck this, you’re on your own’; she really hoped that Rick kept his promise.

More gunshots began to sound, causing her to jump. These ones sounded different, though. They weren’t from Rick’s Beretta, that was for certain.

Moving quickly up the fire escape to the roof, she took the time to scan the span of the rooftop for any sign of a walker before pulling her body up and over the ledge, ducking down and taking a moment to try and calm her raging heart. More shots began to sound and she looked over in the general direction that they were coming from. Pulling the gun from off her shoulder she raised the scope to her eye and looked over the tops of the buildings.

It seemed whoever had been popping off shots had already ducked back down for cover. But the damage was already done, that would have drawn all the more walkers toward that one building. She slipped along the side of the building she was on, she wasn’t even sure what it was, and moved over to the ledge that looked down on the street. The walkers were all crowding around one general building, most likely the one that Rick had been led to.

“And here I thought I was the one going down shit creek with no paddle,” She mumbled to herself, watching as they beat against the doors. A distant rumble of thunder made her look up toward the darkening skies, the moisture of an impending storm already thickening the air. She raised the sniper to look through the scope again, looking up to the top of the building that all of the walkers were surrounding.

One, two, three.

Three people that she could see, one of them was Rick. She was guessing that there had to be more of them. She took a moment to look over the kid that was standing, she would guess that—fitting voice to face—he had been the one that spoke with her and Rick over the radio. Should she fire a shot and let him know she’s there? Would that draw walkers toward her? If she had so much confidence, she’d try and throw something but she knew her arm wasn’t that good and she might just hit a walker and piss it off.

Rick and one of the guys began to walk toward the corner of the rooftop, looking off. They were talking, but she wasn’t able to tell what it was that they were saying. Pulling the scope away from her eye, she took a steadying breath and looked down at the street again. More walkers had appeared around the block, more than likely from the gunshots that had been going off before. More thunder rumbled overhead, causing her to pause. What if she timed the shot perfectly?

 

Rick looked out of the city from a new point of view, unable to wrap his mind around what was going on. He tried to scan the streets for any sign that Jamie had been caught while running off, but nothing seemed amiss among the walkers. They were either wandering around brainlessly or trying to find a way into the department store. The rest of the group that he had joined up with were doing their own, the man he came to know as T-Dog trying to get a signal on the radio.

A loud rumble of thunder echoed over the city, covering all sound for a moment. A distant crack was faintly heard before a small chunk of the stone on the ledge a few feet from Rick blew off. The group jumped and looked around, even Merle looked momentarily at a loss.

“What the fuck?” T-Dog yelled as he looked around. Rick spun around to face the buildings surrounding them, examining the rooftops. There was only one other person he knew of in the city that had a sniper rifle. Rushing over to the gun that he had taken from Merle, he quickly adjusted the scope before beginning to scan over the roofs of the buildings. Abound a block down from where they were, sitting on the top of a twelve story shopping center, was Jamie.

“She’s alive,” Rick breathed in relief, getting looks from the others.

“The woman that was with you in the tank?” Glenn asked immediately, pushing away from where he had been leaning to look where Rick had just been aiming the gun. Rick held the scope up to his eye again to look toward Jamie. She was holding her gun with one hand and tapping the side of her jaw with the other. Rick adjusted his gun to one hand and made a cut throat motion with the other. He hadn't been bitten. He watched as she pointed to herself before repeating his action. She hadn't either.

“What’s going on?” Glenn asked, watching the motion that Rick had made.

“She wanted to know if I’d been bitten,” Rick translated, lowering the gun to speak with him. “She’s on one of the other roofs, the walkers didn’t get to her.”

“I’m not surprised, I watched her run. I’ve never seen someone move that fast in my life,” Glenn said, his voice showing that he was telling the truth. “But if I was running for my life from a horde of geeks I suppose I’d run fast, too.”

“Whoa, there’s someone else?” The blonde woman demanded in exasperation. “How many other people came here with you?”

“It’s just me and her, no one else. We split up from the rest of our group to come here,” Rick explained, rising the scope up to look over to Jamie again. He felt his heart constrict in his chest when he saw that she had leaned over to lay her head on the metal ledge of the building she was on, her head on her folder hands. He didn’t know whether she was praying or crying, but he knew that she looked broken.

“How’s that signal?”

“Like Dixon’s brain,” T-Dog answered tiredly, looking over to the bald man in question, “Weak.” Dixon simply flipped off the other male nonchalantly. 

“Let me see,” Glenn said as he held his hands out for the gun, “I’ve looked this place through from top to bottom, I might know a way for us to help her.” Rick took one last look through the scope himself, seeing that she had straightening up and was loading a new bullet into her gun after firing off the last to get their attention. He handed the rifle over to Glenn and look over to the others, stepping up to the ledge and looking down at the street that was surrounded by walkers.

“Tell me, Chinese, is she hot?” Merle leered from his place on the dirt covered roof, causing Rick to glare over his shoulder. Glenn watched as she looked over in their direction, placing the gun back around her shoulder. Blood was smeared on her face, mostly on the right side, but none of it looked like it was from her. Her right hand was equally as messy. Geek blood. He couldn’t deny, she was hot.

Not that he’d tell Merle that.

He watched her fall to sit down against the metal surrounding the roof, disappearing from sight. She wanted to give up, but she wanted to live at the same time. Glenn lowered the gun and placed it back down on the ground, leaning against the stone wall. Rick had promised her that he’d come, but how could he be sure that he’d ever get the chance? From where she was, she might have a chance of getting away on her own, but it would take perfect timing and careful technique.

Jamie sat against the corner of the roof, trying to think of some way to connect with Rick again. She knew that he would find some way to get him and the rest of the people that had been with the guy who saved them away from the walkers and that building, she just didn’t know how he can do that and save her as well. If he left, she wouldn’t be able to stay in the city by herself, it would be far too dangerous.

She didn’t know how long she was sitting on the roof of the building before she felt cold pelts of water begin to fall on the back of her neck, shoulders and arms. She lifted her head up toward the sky, squinting her eyes as water began to fall down and wash her face clean of blood and sweat. A full downpour was soon covering the city in water, drenching anything outside. Jamie pulled her gun under the small ledge that the water didn’t touch, keeping it dry.

She didn’t feel like she had the energy to rise when she heard the sound of an engine start, the rain stopped as abruptly as it had started. Rain had once cleansed the earth, but now, the disease and decay remained just as it had been before. Now it was just soggy. 

She was jolted from her stupor only when she heard the sharp sound of a car alarm approaching, pulling herself up onto her feet and looked down at the street. A red car ripped around the corner or the street, drawing the attention of walkers away from the loading dock of the store that Rick and the others were in.

“They’re getting out of the city,” She mumbled to herself.

She could do nothing but watch as the car led the walkers away from the doors, only a moment before a white truck sped up to the doors, parking there. Rick. She watched the truck sit still for only a moment, enough time to load passengers into the back, before it took off, lurching forward and away from the store loading dock. She fell to her knees in grief as she watched Rick disappear down the street.


	6. Beat of the Thunder

Rick kept his eyes on the road before him, but his mind was elsewhere. He thought back to the look on Jamie’s face, blood staining her skin, fear widening her pupil as they prepared to leave the tank. He kept seeing those eyes every time he blinked, imagining those eyes on the face of Jamie as a walker. He had left her behind, to him that was just the same as pushing her out into the street to die. She had done nothing but help him, and he had done just as the others had said. He rang the dinner bell.

“It’s best not to dwell on it,” the man in the passenger seat said, whom he had come to know as Morales. “Merle getting left behind,” He elaborated when he saw Rick looked over at him quickly.

“It’s not Merle,” Rick said softly, although, everyone still heard him perfectly. “It’s Jamie. I promised her when she was running that I’d find her, that I’d go back for her. I just left her behind,” Rick growled out, hitting his hand on the wheel of the truck. Andrea looked up from the back of the truck, meeting Morales’s eyes.

“Was she your wife?” he asked carefully.

“No,” Rick answered immediately. “She was one of the first people that I met in this…new world. She’s done nothing but help me and I left her behind for those things.” The look of complete shame that covered Rick’s face made Morales truly feel for the man, wondering what it was that guiding him to do all that he did. Not many would feel so bad about leaving someone behind in a city of walkers.

“She’ll be alright,” Andrea said from the back. “You said that she helped you, so then she really knows what she’s doing. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll get along just fine.” She didn’t really know why she was tried to assure a man that she had only just met, and that had nearly gotten them killed, but she felt that she needed to say something.

“And Merle?” Rick asked suddenly.

“Nobody’s gunna be sad he didn’t come back,” Morales answered right away, before he paused and looked forward to the road. “Except maybe Daryl.”

“Daryl?” Rick asked, looking over to Morales for an explanation.

“His brother.”

Glenn could be heard coming up to them from behind, the car alarm still blaring loudly through the streets of the small town they were passing through. He soon sped passed them, his arm raised out the window as he hooted and hollered in joy of riding the fancy car as full speed down the road. Rick and Morales watched as he darted passed, taking the lead and showing Rick the way to where they were camping outside of the city.

“At least somebody’s having a good day.”

Rick drove on to the camp that he had been told about, keeping a careful for eye on where Glenn was going in the car a short distance ahead of them, the alarm screaming loud and bouncing off the hills. He couldn’t get his mind off the woman that had been left behind, the asshole that he had been forced to leave to his death, and the family that had not been in Atlanta. By the time the camp came into sight, the passengers in the back of the truck had become restless, looking through the front windshield toward the people waiting for them.

Rick sat where he was as the others piled out, knowing that he couldn’t stay in the truck forever. Leaning his head back against the headrest on the seat, he tried to push Jamie’s eyes from his mind, the sight of her running for her life through all of the walkers to save herself. The look of her with her head on her hands on the roof of the building.

Looking over to where Morales was standing with his family, speaking with others from the camp, he knew that he needed to get out and say something. Morales looked over in his direction from where Glenn had been speaking with someone else, his arms still wrapped around his kids and wife. His heart constricted as he thought of Lori and Carl, how he wished that he could hold them in his arms again as well.

“Hey, helicopter boy, come say hello!”

Slipping out of the driver’s door in the large truck, he took a deep breath as he slammed it close behind him, turning to begin to walk up to meet more new survivors. It was great to know that there were so many people that had lived through the epidemic, but he only wanted to find two specific survivors. Now three, technically. He had promised Jamie he’d come back for her, and he was going to stay true to his word.

“He’s a cop,” Morales was saying, speaking to someone else in the group of survivors, “Like you.”

Rick stepped around one of the trucks parked in front of the one he had been driving, looking up to see who else was there. His mind froze as he came face to face with someone very familiar, a close friend of his. His best friend. Shane Walsh stood in front of the red sports car that Glenn had driven up in, a shotgun in hand as he stayed prepared for anything. But the look on his face clearly told him that he had most definitely had not expected to see Rick Grimes step out of that car.

Upon further inspection of the camp, he looked up his wife and son, standing only a few yards behind Shane. Rick’s entire body felt suddenly numb, even as his heart began to beat faster. He tried to make sure that he hadn't been killed in the city and was simply dreaming about seeing his wife and son before him. Carl’s eyes fell on him, looking surprised and previously upset.

“Oh my god,” Rick finally mumbled to himself, stepping toward his family with long strides. Carl was spurred into motion, taking off at a dead run toward his father.

“Dad!” he screamed out, never once slowing his stride. Lori stood and began to run after her son, eyes on her husband. Rick didn’t pause as he bent down to take Carl into his arms, not fazed by the force of his son colliding with his chest. Tears burned his eyes as his body trembled, his heart racing a mile a minute inside his chest. He clutched Carl to him, ducking to the ground as he let out a sob of pure joy.

Lori stood frozen a couple of strides away, watching them with wide eyes. Rick lifted Carl up and stepped over to join his wife, watching Lori’s eyes follow every move that he made. He couldn’t even explain the pure happiness of finding his wife again, holding his son in his arms. He felt whole again. As Lori welcomed him with a hug, he knew that he could survive the new world that he was in.

Hours later, he sat with Carl and Lori clutched to him before a burning fire, Shane sitting across the way as he watched them. He told the others of when he first woke up in the hospital, what he had felt and how things had been. He never once let his loved ones go, keeping his arms tight around Lori and Carl. He watched as Shane had taken control of a situation with another camp member, proving his place as the leader of the group.

“Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?” Dale asked suddenly, looking around at the different people that surrounded the fire.

“I’ll tell him,” T-Dog volunteer immediately, “I dropped the keys, it’s on me.” He looked over where Rick was shaking his head.

“I cuffed him, that makes him mine,” Rick countered.

“Guys, it’s not a competition,” Glenn quickly threw in, looking over to where T-Dog sat to his right. “I don’t want to bring race into this but it might sound better coming from a white guy.” T-Dog didn’t look happy about it, but he also seemed to understand that it might be true.

Rick listened to the different conversations around the fire, wondering when it was that he was going to meet this man ‘Daryl’ and how things were going to play out. He knew that it wasn’t going to be a good morning when this man made it back to camp; from what he’d heard it was going to be a very ugly confrontation. However, his interest was immediately caught when T-Dog started talking about chaining the door of the roof, preventing any way from walkers getting onto the roof.

“My point,” he said carefully, looking over to Rick. “Dixon’s alive.”

“We go back,” Rick said suddenly, causing everyone around the circle to look up at him with wide eyes. Lori looked about to speak, but he shook his head and stopped her from saying anything to try and change his mind. “It’s not only Merle that was left behind.”

“The woman,” Andrea said softly. “You said her name was Jamie?”

Rick nodded his head as he looked down into the flames, “Yea.”

“Who’s Jamie?” Carl asked curiously, looking up at his father with his head tipped back. Rick smiled down at his boy and gently pushed the hair away from his face.

“She saved my life,” Ricks said softly, “She was with the group that I first met when I woke up. We…we got separated in the city, I know that she’s alive, but I wasn’t able to stop and get her as we were rushing out of the city. When we got separated, I promised her that I would come back for her.”

“Did she get hurt?” Dale asked, the meaning behind his words easy to understand. The fire made the shadows on his face dance, his eyes looking into Rick’s with sympathy and seriousness.

“I doubt it,” Glenn threw in. “You should have seen her! She kicked the head off a walker; clean off!” Glenn’s grin was unmatchable, lighting his features in the ring of firelight. “She probably took down about ten of them before they locked themselves in the tank as well. That was walker blood on her face, right?” Glen asked as he looked over at Rick, who nodded.

“Yea, you were kind of making her freak out inside the tank.”

“Yea, I got that when she called me a little…” Glenn trailed off as he looked down at Carl, who didn’t even seem to be paying attention, but everyone else understood what he meant without the young man actually having to finish his sentence. Rick smiled to himself slightly as he remembered the attitude—the defiance—that had shined through during their moment of panic and fear inside the tank. She’d be alright, he knew she would.

Angel.

 

Jamie woke with a start, her eyes meeting nothing but darkness. She looked around herself in fear for a moment, disoriented with lack of sleep as she tried to find out where she was. It took her all of two seconds to realize what had woken her up, the cold feel of water streaming down her face as thunder rumbled overhead. She blinked her eyes to stop water from falling into them, dripping down from loosened strands of hair. She shifted where she sat curled up in the corner of the roof, pressing her body back against the metal to try and protect herself from the cold.

Bone chilling shivers shook her entire frame as she wrapped her arms around herself, ducking her head down into her arms to keep the rain out of her eyes. She could tell that she was drenched completely, not a scrap of material still dry on her body. She reached over to the side and picked up the hunting knife that she had placed down before dark, the blade now cleaned of walker blood.

“Either I die from being eaten, or hypothermia,” she whispered to herself, holding the knife before her as she kept her ears attuned to anything out of the ordinary around the roof. “I’d rather freeze to death.”

Another violent shiver made her entire form quake, the gravel on the rooftop shifting beneath her as she did so. She placed her hands together to try and warm her freezing fingers, curling her toes inside her boots as they began to lose their feeling in the cold night. She wouldn’t last another night sitting on that roof, she couldn’t wait for Rick to come back. She didn’t even know how long it might take before he was able to get back into the city.

A bright flash of light illuminated the rooftop for a moment, showing her how alone she was, before a ground shaking crack made her jump slightly, then tense back up into a taught ball on the ground. She wasn’t going to be getting much more sleep that night, she knew.


	7. Bite the Bullet

Rick’s first impression of Daryl Dixon left much to be desired. That was the easiest way to put it.

Daryl caught the attention of the entire camp as soon as he walked in, calling out to his brother to gain looks from everyone that knew about what had happened in Atlanta the previous day. They knew that hell was about to descend upon their camp, there was no avoiding it. Especially with someone like Daryl Dixon.

Rick followed after when Shane took the lead, depositing his gun into the front seat of his jeep as he was walking passed, waiting to allow Shane to start things off. He knew that he would have to take control of things after a while, since Shane hadn't even been in the city, and wasn’t entirely looking forward to the moment.

“Hey, Daryl, hold on up a bit, I need to talk to you,” Shane said, the tone of his voice nearly revealing what he had to say. Daryl paused in his stride as he turned to look at him, the look on his face telling them that he already had a basic idea that something was wrong.

“’bout what?” he asked finally, looking toward Shane as he approached him. The rest of the camp watched on, some discretely, some less than. The woman stood outside the RV, watching Shane step around Daryl to move between them in a discrete sign of protection.

He didn’t look at Daryl as he spoke, instead staring off at the hills that surrounding them for miles. “About Merle. There was a problem in Atlanta,” he explained carefully, finally looking over to where Daryl was beginning to pace.

“He dead?”

“Not sure,” Shane answered simply, speaking the full truth. They didn’t know whether T-Dog was right or not about the door being able to hold off the walkers, but they truly hoped that it did. Rick, Shane, and T-Dog all wished that they would say ‘no, he’s alive’ but that might not be completely true.

“He either is or he ain’t!” Daryl yelled, his stance and stride changing from unsure and hesitant to angry and defiant. He walked quickly now, moving in a threatening circle around Shane, the other man never backing down.

“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it,” Rick interrupted, moving up to stand alongside Shane, across from Daryl. He didn’t look as threatening as Shane did, more like a friendly man that you wouldn’t expect to know how to shoot a gun or to have killed people before.

“Who’re you?” Daryl demanded, his irritation leaking into his own.

“Rick Grimes,” Rick answered easily, but his tone had taken on the same as when he was speaking with grieving families, telling them that they had lost a loved one in a robbery, or an accident. Shane and Lori knew the tone, even though Lori knew because it was the one that Shane had used when he was telling her about Rick.

“Rick Grimes,” Daryl repeated, spitting the name out as though it were venom on his tongue, “There something you want to tell me?”

“Your brother was a danger to us all,” Rick said quickly, the careful and easy tone of his voice gone and stronger now, holding power and demanding attention be on him. “So I handcuffed him on a roof and hooked him to a piece of metal. He’s still there,” He explained to the man before him, watching the stony look that sat on Daryl face. He didn’t give away his emotion right away as he listened to what the sheriff was saying, turning away when he was finished.

“Wait, let me process this,” Daryl growled out as he wiped at the sweat on his face, “You’re saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof.” He repeated, beginning to pace on the spot as his voice steadily great in volume until he was yelling, “And you left him there?” his voice echoed off the hills that surrounded them, causing several people inside the camp to flinch.

“Yea,” Rick mumbled, the guilt beginning to set in again. He tried to shake off the sudden look of Jamie’s bloodied face that flashed before his eyes. He didn’t expect for Daryl to suddenly throw the rope full of squirrels at him, narrowly missing his head when he barely ducked in time. Shane took that moment to charge at the offending man, tackling him to the ground. Daryl lay on his back for only a second before he pulled free the hunting knife from the sheath on his belt, rolling onto his knees before Shane and Rick.

“Watch the knife,” T-Dog called as he dropped the logs of wood he had been carrying for the fire that night. Daryl went for Rick first, swinging the knife out at him. Rick ducked back to dodge the first swing, catching Daryl’s arm on the second one. The forward attacking motions were faintly familiar. Shane stepped in and took hold of Daryl to keep him still as Rick dislodged the knife from his grip, tucking it into the back of his belt.

“Best let me go!” Daryl yelled as Shane wrapped an arm around the other man’s neck in a choke hold, lowering him to the ground slowly.

“I think it’s better if I don’t,” Shane said back as he kept a tight grip on Daryl, even as the man continued to fight against him.

“Chokehold’s illegal.”

“You can file a complaint.”

Shane kept a hold on Daryl as Rick kneeled before for him, “Now, I’d like to have a nice, calm discussion on this topic. You think we can manage that?” Rick’s voice sounded more mocking than many in the camp had ever heard since he had showed up the previous afternoon. Daryl didn’t answer him, breathing heavily as he glared at him with such a look of hatred, wanting to see him drop dead. “You think we can manage that?” Rick demanded with a more stern voice, leaning in closer to Daryl’s face.

Daryl still didn’t answer the man before him, but he seemed well enough that Shane and Rick passed a look of agreement between them and released him, letting him drop fully to the ground. Daryl looked over to Shane in rage, pointing to him in challenge before Rick drew his attention again.

“What I did was not on a whim, your brother does not work and play well with others,” Rick started, only hearing Daryl’s huffing and puffing as he tried to regain himself.

“It’s not Rick’s fault,” T-Dog interrupted. “I had the key. I dropped it.”

Daryl turned his glare away from Rick to the large black man across the camp. “You couldn’t pick it up!”

“I dropped it down a drain.”

The situation having finally calmed down, T-Dog told Daryl enough about the padlock on the door that it was clear what there was a strong chance Merle Dixon was still alive. Rick stood back as T-Dog spoke, knowing that T-Dog would be torn apart with the guilt if he didn’t get his point across to Daryl.

“It’s got to count for something,” Rick said from behind Daryl. The upset was clear on the youngest Dixon’s face, his eyes squinting and his face frowning. Rick could see that he was close to tears at the thought of his brother probably getting eaten by a city of walkers. He refused to look at either of them, swinging his arm around his angry dismissal as he yelled out.

“Screw all ‘a y’all!” he finally yelled, “Just tell me where he is, so’s I can go get him.”

“I’ll show you,” Rick said immediately, looking over to where Lori was standing outside the RV with a look of resignation. “I have to go back-”

“Rick,” Shane started, but Rick held up his hand, stopping the other man before he could finish his sentence.

“It wasn’t only your brother that was left behind. A friend of mine got separated from me and I promised to go back for her,” Rick explained simply, looking to Daryl. The man didn’t react much but instead stormed over to where his things were located, his entire posture rigid with anger and rage. Rick looked over to Lori, seeing the look on her face and already knowing that she was disappointed in him for leaving again so soon. “Lori, I have to go. I can’t just leave Jamie there to die-”

“Who, what’d you say?” Daryl demanded loudly, turning back around so fast that the camp members were surprised he didn’t get whiplash. Rick opened his mouth to speak, shocked at the sudden tone in Daryl’s voice. Why had it taken this long to react to what Rick had said before? “You said Jamie! Jamie who? Who?”

Shane stepped forward when Daryl moved up threateningly, the entire camp paralyzed in surprise and shock. What could have drawn such a reaction from Daryl Dixon? Only a woman’s name?

“I don’t know, she never told me,” Rick said carefully, treating the situation delicately. Daryl turned back to his things, moving over to the bag that was located beside the fire. Rick looked over to Lori quickly, seeing that she was watching Daryl’s movements with a strange look on her face. She was unsure or what was happening exactly, but Jamie’s name was a very important trigger.

Rick watched as Daryl pulled something from the front pocket of his bag before marching back over to Rick and shoving a picture into his hand. “Is this her?” He demanded with a harsh frown on his features, but Rick could see a spark of hope in his gaze. Rick looked down at the photo that had been pushing into his palm.

Imagine his shock when he saw a more innocent looking Jamie smiled back at him. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her cheeks weren’t as thin as they were when he met her, the dimple on her left cheek extremely prominent. Her left hand was tucked under her chin, her elbow resting on her knee as she looked toward whoever was taking the picture. The background was all trees and her halter top was the same as he remembered her tan line to be.

“Yea,” Rick rasped out as he looked back up at Daryl, who had stood before him, waiting. “This is her.” He held the picture out to Daryl, letting the younger man snatch it back from him and turn away to replace it in his bag. The camp watched his every move, unsure of how to take the newest information.

“Who is she?” Amy asked from outside the RV, voicing the question that everyone was thinking. Daryl zipped his bag closed, his back to nearly all the camp.

“My fiancé,” he finally said in a low voice, the word catching even Rick by surprise. Jamie had never once spoken of having a fiancé, she had always referred to Daryl by the term ‘boyfriend’. “We better be leaving here soon, I ain’t leaving her in the city with only your word that she’s alright, got it?” Daryl snapped as he faced Rick, who simply nodded his head in understanding.

Rick was quick to get changed into his uniform, freshly cleaned by Carol, and make his way up toward the RV. Shane was waiting for him along the path, already having what he was going to say ready. But Rick could not be moved, he had left two people in that city two die, one of which was an innocent life that still had loved ones looking for her.

“Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?” Shane asked as he followed up after Rick, standing right next to the fire that Daryl was occupying.

“Hey,” Daryl interrupted, pointing at Shane with the arrows he was holding in his hand. “Choose your words more carefully.”

“I know, I did,” Shane said quickly as he turned his attention to Daryl for a quick moment, “Douchebag’s what I meant.” Rick stood before Shane with a resigned look, his mind unwavering. “Merle Dixon. The guy wouldn’t give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst.”

“What he would or wouldn’t do doesn’t interest me,” Rick countered. “I can’t let a man die of thirst. Me. And you seem to forget that it’s not just Merle Dixon that was left behind, Shane, Jay’s still in that city, too.”

“Someone that hangs out with the Dixon’s? Someone that wants to marry a Dixon?” Shane asked in exasperation, looking at Rick like he had completely lost his mind. Rick was becoming accustomed to that look, knowing that he would probably continue to receive it. “She’s probably just as bad.” Daryl made to lunge at Shane but Rick stopped him, pushing him back with a firm hand on his collar.

“That’s enough, Shane. You are going too far, and you know it. She has done nothing but good for me; I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. So that’s enough.”

“That’s bullshit, Rick, and you know it. She didn’t do anything! She ran away, she took off as soon as she had the chance and it’s her fault that she was left behind,” Shane said, motioning toward the direction of the city as he spoke.

“You shit!” Daryl yelled, trying to move past Rick to get at Shane again.

“Actually,” Glenn said as he stepped toward the feuding men carefully, “Rick probably wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for her. When he was under the tank, she took out a lot of walkers that would have otherwise been trying to kill him,” he threw in, looking to Shane as he spoke. This was news to Daryl’s ears, though.

“Yea?” He asked as he took a step away from Rick, allowing the cop to relax slightly now that Daryl wasn’t trying to take out Shane.

“Yea,” Glenn confirmed. “She kicked the head off a walker when they were trying to run, before she got cut off from Rick. I think she was pretty pissed off.” Daryl actually laughed when he heard this, a smirk touching his features as he turned around to finish cleaning and loading the arrows into his crossbow.

“Hey, Glenn,” Rick called when Glenn turned to leave, pausing at the sound of his name. “I need to ask you for a favour.”


	8. Damn Good Reason

Jamie leaned over the edge of the building, the sun beginning to rise in the distance. Walkers trudged along the alleyway, making their way slowly toward the street. The walkers had almost completely dispersed from around the building that Rick and the others had been trapped in, still wandering around the streets brainlessly, though. Letting out a silent sigh, she raised to her full height and adjusted the strap of the rifle on her back before taking one last look to make sure the walkers wouldn’t hear her before she silently slipped down from the roof and onto the fire escape again.

She made sure to keep as silent as she could on a metal fire escape, her sore and tired muscles barely keeping her up on the ladder. She descended down until she was level with the roof of the building next to her, stepping onto the railing and crouching down to spring. The distance wasn’t too great, but the fact that she was still about six stories above the ground was highly unsettling.

Pushing hard with her legs, she leapt across the space before she had time to second guess her actions, her feet hitting the roof and her knees giving out momentarily at the shock of hitting the ground. Her hands fell before herself to stop her body from falling face first onto the rooftop, her face drawing into a grimace when the skin of her palms was torn slightly. She rose onto her knees and pulled her hands before herself, looking down at the blood that was beginning to well to the surface.

Moving over to make sure that she hadn't alerted the walkers down in the alley, she winced and moved back when she leaned down on her hands, her blood smearing on the ledge. Trying again, she leaned over and looked down at the alley, seeing that there were no walkers acting differently. Moving away from that side, she crept around to the back and checked quickly to see the conditions back there before moving to the opposite side as she had come to the other fire escape, moving away from the crowd of dead on the streets.

A low rasping sound drew her attention and she swung around immediately, her hand falling to the knife on her thigh. A walker was limping over toward her from the stairwell of the building, half of its face torn off with blood still dripping from the wound. She pulled the knife from the sheath and stepped quickly to the side of the dead woman, preventing her from being able to scratch her and stabbed the large knife into a soft eye. She went limp immediately, felling down and pulling the knife from her eye in the process.

“Damn,” Jay grumbled aloud as she leaned down to wipe the blade onto the remainder of the woman’s clothing, cleaning it. She kept the knife in her hand for protection and leaned over the side of the building to check for walkers before slipping out onto the fire escape. The sun hit her back as it peaked over the tops of the buildings, lighting the city. If only the nightmares disappeared with the darkness.

Moving silent as night, Jay made her way down to the streets, careful not to irritate her hands too much. She needed to find a place that would have first aid supplies or her hands might become infected. She had already pulled out the gravel that had been stuck in her skin but the cuts were still raw and softly bleeding. She couldn’t wipe them off because of the amount of walker blood on her clothing. She wasn’t going to chance getting any in her hands. She already risked it enough stabbing that woman.

Looking carefully for the signs that were located along the buildings, she kept her eyes open for a pharmacy or clinic, anything that could hold medical supplies. Slipping out onto a deserted street several blocks away from the main hub of walkers, she noticed a corner store that had the windows busted in. They should at least have bandages if not peroxide. Darting across the street on silent feet, she held onto the strap of her gun with her knife in her hand, using one great jump through the window to get into the store. It appeared that people had looted the place already when everything went to shit, but she couldn’t see any walkers. They probably weren’t smart enough to climb over the four feet to get to the window and inside; luckily the door was still intact.

Crouching low as soon as she was inside the window, she adjusted her hold on her knife when the hilt rubbed against the tender skin of her palm and look a careful sweep of the store with her eyes. Moving along the floor silently, she made sure the look down every aisle in the small room, seeing that the place was clear. She didn’t let her guard drop as she stepped down each aisle, looking along the near empty shelves to try and find where the medical supplies would have been.

Only a couple of minutes of searching and boxes of Band-Aids that had fallen onto the floor from the shelves caught her eye, scattered supplies pushed about in the rush of people. She moved some things around quickly, her eyes darting around herself several times as she looked for something to cover her hands. A small box that held a tenser bandage meant for small things, like a wrist. Pulling the box from the shelf and ripping it open, she told herself that she would just have to disinfect it later.

Placing her knife in reaching distance, she carefully opened the box and wrapped her right hand gently. She looked along the shelves for another one, but it seemed that the others had all been raided. She snatched a box of Band-Aids and pulled a handful of them out, stuffing them into her pocket to patch up her left hand when she’d found a more secure location to hide away in. The store was too open to do much of anything.

She stalled a moment longer in the store, trying to think if she’d need anything else before she pushed herself off the floor and climbed out the busted window, into the morning sunlight. She squinted against the sudden change of light, lifting a hand to shield her eyes and stepped around toward the alley to get out of immediate sight on the streets. As she ducked into the back alleys she could have sworn she heard yelling in the distance, short cries that echoed along the buildings.

Rick, Glenn and T-Dog would admit that they were slightly concerned for the fact that Daryl seemed to be a ticking time bomb as they made their way down the block to where Rick and Glenn had seen Jamie while they were still on the roof of the department store. They were cautious about walkers, noting that several were still on the street but didn’t seem to frequent the alley.

“Who’s going up?” T-Dog asked as he looked up the twelve stories that led to the roof of the building. Glenn looked over to Rick, but Daryl had already moved to the base of the escape, shouldered his crossbow and began up the ladder with a determination that they hadn't seen since he had kicked the door open on the roof of the department store. He scaled the first ladder, then the second, and was onto the third before Glenn had moved up to follow after him more slowly, leaving T-Dog and Rick to watch the alley.

Daryl moved with a fast pace, reaching the top of the building before Glenn had made it over the top of the one next to it. The dark tanned male pushed himself up onto the roof of the building, looking around for any sign of Jamie still being there. But the roof was empty; the only sign that she had been there was mussed gravel. He moved over to the corner that he had heard Rick and Glenn talking about, seeing the stones from the roof had been far more shifted there than anywhere else. She’s slept there.

His hands lifted to grip at his hair, feeling the anger roll through him at the thought of having Jamie slip through his fingers after he had only just found that she was still alive. He had already lost Merle, but if Jamie was hurt as well, he might lose his mind. Crouching to the ground as his hands continued to grip his hair, he did his best to calm the tension of his body, the want to rip something apart.

“Fuck this bullshit,” he growled out, turning back around the way that he had come. Glenn had stopped on the escape, looking over to the other roof. As soon as he heard Daryl above him, he pointed over to draw the man’s attention. Daryl squinted as he tried to see what he was pointing at through the sun, noticing right away the body of something on the floor. Throwing his crossbow strap onto his back, he quickly began to descend the fire escape until he was nearly the same level as Glenn before he lifted his foot onto the railing and jumped to the next building over. T-Dog tried to get Glenn’s attention quietly, wondering why Daryl had just launched himself to another building.

“Hold on,” Glenn called down, watching as Daryl ran over to the body that lay on the top of the roof.

The youngest Dixon jogged halfway across the roof before he realized that it was not Jamie that was lying face first in the gravel, but a rotting walker that she must have killed. He stopped running and simply walked up to the body, using his foot to turn it over onto its back. A stab through the eye was what had killed the S.O.B, rather violently as well. He stepped over to where the fire escape was located a couple of feet away, looking down. She must have needed a different route than the one at the base of the first building. Turning to face where Glenn was watching him from the fire escape, he knew that he needed to go back. He wasn’t going to get anywhere trying to follow Jamie’s tracks. Once she hit the ground, she would have been too careful to leave many behind.

“What did you find?” Glenn asked cautiously from the escape, watching Daryl.

“Walker, must have gotten in her way or something,” Daryl answered simply as he raised a boot up to the ledge to jump back over to the fire escape when he paused, looking down at the metal. Blood. Smudged, bloody hand prints were left in a distinct leaning pattern. He let his eyes linger on the spot a moment more before he lifted himself up onto the ledge and jumped over to take hold of the ladder across the way, startling Glenn back against the wall.

They quickly made their way down to the ground again, T-Dog and Rick ducked behind a dumpster so they weren’t in the view of walkers that were wandering the street. They quickly moved to join them, every once and a while checking to make sure that nothing was coming their way.

“I take it she wasn’t there,” T-Dog said as he looked between Daryl and Glenn.

“Nah, took down a walker not long ago, though. She jumped from this building over to that one, scraped up her hands something bad, too. There’s blood on the ledge where she leaned against it,” Daryl explained as he leaned slightly around the dumpster to check for any walkers. “Must have gone down the fire escape on the other side.”

“Now what? We can’t keep wandering around hoping to run into her,” T-Dog said, seeing the sharp look that the hunter sent him and chose not to react to it.

“We’ll go get the guns, hopefully we can find a sign of where she’s been. She’s only got so much ammo in that gun, she might have gone back for more at some point,” Rick said as an answer, sounding reluctantly resigned.

“You’re just going to give up?” Daryl demanded, hand tightening on his crossbow in anger. Rick turned his eyes to him, shaking his head.

“That’s not it, Daryl. We can’t just walk around here like lost kids,” Rick said carefully, trying to take control of the situation again. “We’ll find her, Daryl, but we can’t do this blindly.”

They could all see the irritation on Daryl’s face at being told what to do, and Rick understood completely. He kept thinking back to how desperate Jamie had sounded about finding Daryl, the love and devotion that had dripped from every word whenever she spoke of him. If Daryl felt even half of the same feelings as she did, then there was no way that he would easily give up on her. He would keep fighting until he saw her again. It was just the person that Daryl was.

He always has a damn good reason for everything he does. That was what Jamie had told him, and it was at this moment that he knew it was true. For blood relations and love relations, Daryl was willing to put his life on the line. He had a damn good reason.

_Jamie’s face was marred with a frown as she looked down at the paperwork that she had been forced to bring home with her, reading through a paragraph for the third time before finally realizing that she didn’t even understand the words that she was seeing anymore. She sighed loudly as she leaned back in her desk chair, her hands rising up to wipe at her face in exhaustion. It wasn’t even midnight and she already felt like she’d been awake for hours._

_A sudden clack caused her to jump slightly, looking forward to see a shot glass filled with an amber liquid sitting on her desk, calloused working hands leaning on the desk._

_“Take a break a’ready,” Daryl’s voice wasn’t slurred in the least, taking her slightly off guard. She would have expected him to fully take advantage of the celebrations at the bars and get completely plastered and call to have her come and pick him up._

_“I thought you were out drinking?” she asked tiredly, looking up into clear blue eyes. She didn’t look drunk in the least, either._

_“Why go out to a bar and pay for drinks when I can just raid your stash here fer free?” He smirked back, getting a short glare from the woman. She refused to touch the shot that he had placed on the desk for her, even though that was exactly what he was waiting for. “Come on now, it’s almost midnight.”_

_“I thought you didn’t follow tradition?” she mocked, folding her arms across her chest as she looked at him challengingly._

_“Now why would you think tha’?” He ginned back, turning his body around so that he was sitting on the edge of the desk and crossing his own arms. His defined arms only looked all the more muscular from the action, his white wife beater exposing a lot of skin in the process._

_“Experience, past years… because I know you,” she replied back sharply, challenging him with her eyes. He huffed in amusement as he pushed himself off her desk, the movement jarring some of the objects on top and ruffling her papers._

_“If you know me so well,” Daryl started, picking up the shot from on top of her desk. She could hear the tenants in the apartment below her begin to yell loudly, telling her that even if Daryl hadn't come here and she had been focusing on her work, it would have been much too loud when they started cheering to pay attention to the words on the pages. “Then why am I here?”_

_“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, eyeing the shot glass in his tanned hand._

_Daryl didn’t say anything but instead knocked back the shot in his hand before he could give her another chance to take the offered alcohol. The cheering in the apartment below picked up even more as Daryl slammed the empty shot glass down on the wood of her work desk, nearly making her jump. Daryl ducked forward faster than she could comprehend as one final, great cheer erupted down below. His lips pressed to hers, forcing them to part with the pressure before warm Amaretto alcohol flooded into her mouth, the sweet taste mingling with the sharp tang of alcohol. He made sure that she had swallowed before he pulled back; leaving her dazed and half drunk in the chair, unsure of how much alcohol it truly took to get her tipsy. Although, she wasn’t quite drunk off the drink._

_“Happy Birthday, Babe.”_


	9. Reconciliation

“I’m really getting tired of this bullshit,” Jamie growled low as she ducked through a hole in the fencing that separated the side alleys from the back alleys, hearing the groaning and growls from the walkers that were scrambling after her. She turned sharp on another corner, her foot sliding along a loose piece of newspaper that littered the ground and sending her to the hard pavement. She cried out in pain when she landed hard on her elbow and side, the jolt to her already sore ribs giving her pause.

The rasping growls of a walker nearby got her moving again, though—stumbling through the alley in pain. Her heart raced inside her chest as she turned another corner carefully, the hand that wasn’t holding her knife gripping her sore ribs. She was sure that her right elbow was now scraped up as well, but her adrenaline was pumping so much she couldn’t feel the minor pain.

She glanced back once to see that there were still a couple of walkers stumbling their way after her, reaching out to try and grab her. She cussed under her breath and took a quick right into another back alley, ducking around a dumpster to take a moment and try to regain her breath. The sounds of the walkers weren’t hard to miss as they made their way passed the alley, looking around for her.

She swallowed thickly as she leaned her head back against the stone of the building behind her, gripping the knife in her hand tightly. The tenser bandage stuck to her palm from the cuts, tugging every now and again and reopening the wounds. She looked down at the various Band-Aids that littered her other palm, not as painful as her right. A growl nearby made her lean back against the wall as far as she could and raise the knife up readily.

The male walker stumbled out past the dumpster, its dead eyes turning toward her slowly. She waited for it to lunge before plunging the knife into its eye, the body falling limp over top of hers. She held her breath against the chocking stench that rolled off its body, but didn’t move to push it away as other walkers dragged themselves passed her hiding place, completely unaware that she was there. She was well masked beneath the rank smell that rose from the dead.

She slowly pulled her knife from the walker’s brain, her muscles straining to do so quietly, as the handful of dead citizens stumbled on by. She was soon alone in the alley once more, the group that had been following her splitting off in different directions, the few that passed her long gone. She fumbled with the strap of her gun, tired of running or waiting for them to get close to her. She didn’t give a damn anymore if more heard the shot; she wasn’t going to die by those things.

She kicked the body of the dead walker off herself and peaked around the dumpster in the way that she had come, seeing that the coast was clear. She wasn’t going to chance going the other way since it led out onto the street. That seemed to be where they always were.

The afternoon sun shined through into the alley from the opening, lighting the head of the man she had killed with her knife. She pushed away the guilt and took hold of the gun in her hand, keeping the strap on one shoulder and began to jog back down the way that she had come. She didn’t expect four diseased people to be waiting for her when she went to round the corner.

“Fuck me,” she yelled to herself before she began running again, her boots slamming the ground. She slid her knife back into the sheath on her hip and thigh, strapping it down so she didn’t lose it, and ducked past another walker that popped out of another alley on her way passed. She looked ahead and saw that the back alley she was using was cut off several yards ahead by a fence. She reached the fence at a jump, her feet finding the holes and pulling herself up and over as quickly as she could. A hand swiped along the back of her calf, not fast enough to grab the material of her pants, and she fell unceremoniously onto the ground on the opposite side of the fence.

She choked down a cry of pain as her back collided hard with the ground, her already sore body feeling like it was getting kicked while it was down. She groaned in pain as she rolled onto her side, looking around herself quickly to check for other walkers. She couldn’t see any, but it wasn’t safe to linger. The noise that the ones behind the small fence were making was sure to draw attention. 

Raising her gun up before her, she took a moment to remain on her knees and try to regain her breathing before she pushed forward again. She made quick work of getting away from the small group of walkers behind the metal fence, not knowing how long the chain links could hold them if they continued to beat and press. Her ribs screamed in protest as she jogged silently away from the main back alley, coming to a stop before she rounded a corner to a side alley. She had moved far enough away from the center of the city that she was sure there wouldn’t be many more walkers, but after what happened before she didn’t want to take any chances.

The sound of shuffling steps made her cringe before swinging around the corner, rifle raised and pointed between two blue eyes. Her entire body seized in shock, her stomach feeling as though it had just dropped to her feet. Her throat tightened and her mouth went dry, unable to turn her eyes away from the familiar face before her, a crossbow lowering away from her face to point at the ground.

His dirty blonde hair was sweaty and sticking to his forehead with mud and dirt covering his cheeks and forehead, she could tell that he had hunted recently, the stains on his skin and clothes familiar to her. The same cut off shirts that she had become accustomed to showed off his arms, just as tense as her own. Those blue eyes, however, pieced straight through every wall or piece of resolve that she had left about her.

“Angel,” Daryl Dixon mumbled softly, completely ignoring the fact that her gun was still raised. Her hand was no longer over the trigger, her arms beginning to shake. The one word made the rest of her will crumble and her gun lowered to the ground, a sob breaking free from her throat. Daryl’s arm came around her shoulders before she could comprehend, his crossbow bumping her thigh.

He soon dropped his own weapon to fall to join her rifle on the ground, clattering onto the pavement fairly loudly. She was enveloped in his arms in the next instant, her feet lifting from the ground. The pain of her ribs and back being compressed jolted through her body, but she could have cared less. She gripped onto the back of Daryl’s shirt like a lifeline as her eyes burned with tears, clearing tracks down her cheeks as they fell and smudging the remains of dust on her skin onto his already filthy shirt. She felt elated and exhausted all at once, her legs wanting to give out but her hands holding onto him with a death grip.

Her feet touched back down on the ground as Daryl bent forward to hide his face in the crook of her neck for a moment, taking in a deep breath to calm the raging emotions inside of him. She could still feel how tense he was as he held her, fearing that she’d disappear if he let her go for a second. Her face was pressed against his collar because of the action, surrounding her in the smell of sweat, dirt, wood and Daryl.

She pulled back enough to see his face again, noticing the moisture in his eyes as she looked him over for any injury that she would not have initially caught when she first saw him. She lifted her hands to run her thumbs over his cheeks, feeling the stubble that had grown around his goatee. His hands took hold of her own and his forehead fell down to rest against hers, hearing and feeling her heavy breathing as she tried to calm herself.

“I’m a’right,” he assured gently. He looked down at her hands at the coarse feel of a material on her hand, seeing that she had bandaged them both up and remembered the blood from the roof of the building she had jumped to. “You got hurt.” His voice was shameful, knowing that he hadn't been able to keep her safe from everything.

“I’m fine,” she whispered, lifting a hand up to run it through his lengthening hair, pushing it back and out of the way of his face. She pulled herself up to place a kiss on his forehead, then down on his nose, on both cheeks and finally a light press of a kiss on his lips. “I was so worried about you,” she gasped out, barely audible.

“We can’t stay here,” a voice suddenly said from behind Daryl, the familiarity taking Jamie by surprise. She stepped away from Daryl as he turned to look over his shoulder to where Rick was standing with T-Dog and Glenn still, the two other men completely unknown to Jamie. “There’s bound to be walkers around here, we need to get a move on.”

“Right,” Jay agreed with a nod, moving to grab her gun but finding Daryl already holding it out to her. She smiled up to him and nodded her thanks, taking the rifle from him and turning back to the other three. “I left a group of walkers a couple blocks back behind some fencing, but I don’t know how long it’ll last.”

“Then it’s time to get going,” Rick answered, jogging passed them to continue on the route that Daryl had been scoping out before he found a gun pointed between his eyes. “We can make introductions later.” Jay followed after Rick as he led the way to a destination that they were clearly already heading for, the black bag of guns that he had dropped the day before strapped to his back.

“Here,” Daryl said suddenly from where he was keeping pace beside her, holding out a bag to her. Her bag. They must have grabbed it when they were getting the guns. She smiled her thanks as she took the bag and adjusted the strap so that it was out of the way of her rifle. They alternated between running and jogging until they got to the outskirts of the city, the railroad tracks in the distance. Jamie felt a flash of nausea as she looked at the bridge that she had Rick and crossed over on the horse when first coming into the city, remembering the dread that she had been feeling.

“We haven’t officially met,” the Asian man said as he came to walk beside her once they had slowed their pace to a steady fast walk, holding out his hand for her to shake. “I’m Glenn, the little shit from the tank.” Jay laughed softly at his words before she took a hold of his hand and shook it.

“Jamie Knight, thanks for saving my ass,” she retorted, getting a grin in response as he retracted his hand. “And you are?” She asked as she looked to the large black man that was walking on Glenn’s other side, looking ahead of himself as he walked.

“T-Dog,” he answered as he nodded his head in her direction, giving off the vibe that there was something eating at him. She didn’t bother trying to engage him anymore, letting him have the time to think to himself. An arm fell over her shoulders and she looked over to where Daryl was walking, looking ahead as he casually laid claim to her. She smirked to herself and wrapped an arm around his waist to slide her hand into his back pocket, feeling his arm muscles tense and jump.

“Admit it,” Glenn said suddenly, looking over to where Rick was walking on the opposite side of the row of people as Daryl, “You only came back to Atlanta for the hat.” Jay laughed softly and she looked over to Rick, seeing that he took the sentence in good humour.

“Don’t tell anybody.”

Daryl made a sharp ‘tch’ sound from Jay’s right, still looking forward. “And giving away half our guns and ammo,” He added in.

“Don’t start it, Daryl,” Jamie said softly as she pulled her hand from his back pocket to wrap around his torso, feeling his ribs beneath her palm. “There’s still plenty of guns and ammo. Besides, they just draw more walkers, it’s best to learn how to survive without them.”

“You really are a saint, ain’t ya?” Daryl asked as he looked down at her, nestled against his side even in the harsh heat. She just shrugged her shoulders innocently and looked over to the bus that they were passing.

“What are you guys looking for ‘round here anyway?” she asked as she rounded the front of the bus, feeling Daryl pull her to a stop as they all paused in their trek, looking toward the tracks. She glanced between Daryl and the other men, seeing the same look of shock and dread on each of their features.

“Oh my god,” Glenn finally stated, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

“Where the hell’s our van?” Daryl asked rhetorically, his eyes darting around the tracks to see if they had just moved to the wrong place and it was parked somewhere else. But there wasn’t a single vehicle in sight, just abandoned train cars and fencing.

“We left it right there, who would take it?” Glenn asked desperately.

“Merle,” Rick growled out, looking soured completely. The light mood that had been building as they spoke had disappeared like the morning fog, leaving a seriousness and dread behind that left them all tense and alert. Jamie reacted just as Daryl would have expected to the name.

“Merle?” she asked loudly, looking over to Rick first since he had said the name, before swinging around on Daryl, “Merle? He’s still alive?” she demanded in shock, her hazel eyes wide enough that nearly her complete iris was visible.

“We don’t know that,” Rick said from behind her, drawing her attention back to him again. “I locked him to the roof yesterday and he got stuck there overnight. We went to find him this morning and found only the handcuffs.”

“Son of a bitch cut off his own hand,” Daryl explained as his arm tightened on her shoulders. “He’s gunna be taking some vengeance back to camp,” Daryl said with a tone of grudging acceptance, looking to Rick as he said that.

“If we find him there,” Jay started with a deadly tone, looking to Daryl as he spoke. He was fairly certain he knew what she was going to say before she actually said it, since he knew of the hatred that she held for his brother for many reasons. “I’m shootin’ him in the ass.”

“Looks like we’re running from here,” Rick said regretfully, looking around at all the people around him. None of them made a sound of protest, knowing just how important it was that they get back to camp before Merle Dixon had a chance to cause too much trouble. Shane was there to hold up the fort, but he knew that many people there wouldn’t be too happy about him having to shoot Merle, no matter how much of an ass he was.

They kept a steady pace as they jogged from the city, the late afternoon sun beating down on their backs. Jamie tried to ignore the pain of her back and side as she was jogging, knowing that there was nothing that could be done at the time anyway. She’d just have to wait until they reached the camp and have Daryl check if the ribs were broken or just bruised. She knew without the shadow of a doubt that she was already sporting some nasty bruising on the outside.

They sun was going down fast as they got closer and closer to the camp, the city far behind them now. The uneven dirt path made them stumble every now and again, but everyone kept their pace. Daryl watched Jamie carefully the entire time, noticing that her stride had started to lag when they reached the forest. He was assuming that she hadn't gotten too good of a sleep the night before, on alert for walkers and sleeping in the rain.

“How much further is your camp?” she huffed quietly, not wanting to draw attention to their small travelling group.

“Not far,” Glenn replied back, just as winded as everyone else. Daryl placed a hand on Jamie’s back and nudged her forehead when she started to fall behind him again, keeping up behind Rick instead. He didn’t want her falling behind him, she wasn’t going to be leaving his sights for the rest of the night and so on.

They kept moving until they were taking a shortcut to the camp through the woods that Daryl had told them about, shrouding them in complete darkness. Jamie felt reassured at the ever frequent presence of Daryl’s hand on her back, guiding her along. She watched the glimmer of the metal gun muzzles that protruded from the bag on Rick’s back, a few shotguns and rifles short. They all came to an abrupt stop as shots and screams sounded from the distance. Jamie looked toward the noise before she took off at a dead run, the others all moving to follow immediately.

Jamie pulled her gun from her back as she ran, seeing the faint light of fires through the trees. The sounds of gunfire still went off now and again, screams never ceasing. There was way too much commotion for one man. She burst through the trees to a walker straight in her path, her gun rising and firing before it even had a chance to notice her there. Rick and Daryl rushed out after her on either side, their own guns lifted to the threat.

She took careful precaution not to shoot anyone that was still alive in the camp, whistling to get a walkers attention before putting a bullet in its head. She knew that she didn’t have too many rounds and fired off shots that were further away because she knew that Daryl and the other men would take out the close ones with their shotguns. 

She fired off her final shot, walkers still stumbling about.

A growling sound came from behind her and she immediately swung her otherwise useless weapon around to knock the bastards jaw loose. She pulled her knife from the sheath and stabbed it in the head for good measure before she turned her attention to another. She looked over to where Rick was with a young boy, the child clinging to him. He’d found his family.

She noticed the stray walker stumbling toward the woman that stood a couple of paces away from Rick and took a loose hold of her knife before aiming and throwing. The blade flipped several times, flying passed the woman’s head as she shrieked in surprise before embedding itself in the cheek of the walker. She straightened her posture and swung around to look about, making sure that there were no more that were going to rise around her. She winced as her ribs gave another throb of protest, placing a hand over the injury.

“Jamie!” Daryl’s voice called throughout the camp, drawing her attention.

“Over here,” she said loudly, moving around the bodies of the walkers toward the central area. Her gun was splattered with the blood of the one that she had hit it with, more of it on her shirt and arm. She looked around at the surviving members of the camp with sad eyes, all crowding together at the top of the hill. Daryl rushed toward her, his gun raised away from her in one hand and took her into his arms as soon as she was close enough. She allowed herself to lean against him, the fatigue of the day gripping at her as the adrenaline began to run low.

She could see the eyes of some of the camp members on her as she pulled back from Daryl slowly, feeling his lips against her temple as she looked about at the loss that surrounded her. She stepped slowly up the hill, still dazed, and took hold of the hilt of her knife and pulled if from the walker’s face. Everyone’s attention slowly began to turn, one by one, to a woman that kneeled, sobbing, over the dead body of her sister, blood covering the both of them.


	10. Hush, Hush

Jamie took a hold of the arms of one of the woman that had been in the camp, half eaten by walkers, and began to drag her over to the row of other dead group members that had been taken care of. Daryl went about with a pick axe, putting it in the heads of all the once living and dead to stop any chance of someone coming back as a newborn walker. She had also learned that they were referred to as geeks by the people of the camp, just as Glenn had when he was speaking to her and Rick over the radio.

“Need any help with that?” T-Dog asked as he saw her pulling the woman along, her tired arms straining.

“Nah, she’s not very heavy,” she answered back, panting with the exertion of moving all the bodies. “Not anymore,” She added cynically, looking down at the hanging intestines that were free of the woman’s gut. T-Dog made a face of disgusted agreement before he went back to helping Glenn to move another body that Daryl had just dealt with, chucking it into the fire.

Releasing the woman’s arms as soon as she was in a row with the others, she let out a huff of air and straightened up to look for the next on. An agonizing jolt shot through her back and side as soon as she had risen to her full height and she couldn’t stop the strangled yell of pain that erupted from her chest, doubling over in pain.

“Jamie,” Rick called as he rushed over to her side. She tried to wave him off, but her pain filled cry had alerted most of the camp and their eyes were on her now. She took a breath to try and relax her body, but when she moved to straighten again the reaction was the same, a hiss drawing between her teeth. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re not…bit, are you?” Glenn asked carefully, noticing that her shirt was so crusted with dried blood and dirt that it was almost impossible to tell. She shook her head, however, and lifted a hand to her aching side.

“I fell yesterday, I think my ribs are cracked,” she finally explained, looking to Rick’s worried face. She still hadn't gotten a moment to talk to him about coming back for her, and she knew that it wasn’t the proper time, anyway.

“What happened?” Daryl demanded as he came back into the main area of camp, only seeing that his girlfriend—or, rather, fiancé—was in pain. He dropped the pick axe and moved over to them immediately, placing and hand on her back that caused her to flinch.

“She said she fell in the city yesterday,” Rick explained as Jamie’s face masked with pain. Daryl’s hand hovered over her back still, unsure. He wanted to show her that he was there, but he didn’t want to risk placing his hand down on a sore spot again.

“You sure she wasn’t bit?” Shane demanded from where he sat by the fire, previously having been keeping an eye on Andrea by the RV. “We can’t take any chances, not after last night.” He words sent a bolt of anger through Daryl, but when he tried to rise up Jay took a hold of his arm, using him to lower her body to the ground more easily.

“Shane,” Rick started, knowing what Shane wanted.

“Let’s see,” Shane cut in, swinging his shotgun onto his shoulder as he rose to his feet. “Let’s see that there ain’t no bite, have someone check her over in one of the tents,” he continued, seeing the fury that was covering Daryl face but paying it no heed. Rick looked over to Daryl, looking like a caged animal ready to attack its keeper. The younger man looked over to Rick, seeing the silent question in his eyes.

Dale, Lori and Shane watched from the distance of the campfire as Daryl moved behind Jamie and carefully tugged up the once white shirt that she was wearing. He nearly immediately dropped the material and moved back, hand rising to his mouth. The others of the camp began to dread the words of confirmation that they were expecting.

“Is she…”Lori started, looking to Rick. He had seen the condition of Jamie’s back when Daryl had raised the shirt as well, he would know. Rick shook his head before he looked over to Dale with concern in his eyes.

“Do you have any kind of a painkiller?” he asked shakily. Lori rose to her feet and rushed over to Jamie, lifting her shirt carefully as Daryl marched over to where his things were located, his boots kicking up dirt as he went. The elder woman rolled up the blonde’s shirt until it was bunched at her shoulder blades, her eyes widening at the sight of the span of bruises that covered the entirety of the right half of her back and her side. The right wing of the angel tattoo on her back was almost completely obstructed by the bruising.

“That’s got to mean broken ribs,” she said softly to Rick, watching as Jamie turned her head slightly to listen.

“It’s that bad?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“You can’t keep moving around like you’ve been,” Rick answered gently, looking down at her. She still looked to be in pain. All the moving about and hauling bodies throughout the morning had been the last straw. Her back and side couldn’t take any more, her ribs were probably worse off than when they first ran into her the day before. “You’ll need to sit out, alright?”

“Here,” Daryl said as he suddenly appeared again, holding out a pill in his hand. “It’ll help with the pain,” he explained as Jamie looked at the white pill hesitantly. She looked up to see the worry in his eyes and knew that he wouldn’t lie, so she took the pill in her hand and placed in on her tongue before swallowing it down dry.

“Can you keep an eye on her?” Rick asked Lori as the other woman rolled down the stained white shirt to cover Jay’s back again.

“Yea, no problem,” she readily agreed, nodding her head. “Can you stand?” Lori asked as she looked to Jamie. Rick and Daryl offered her their hands and let her pull herself up, straightening her body into a straight line. They could hear several faint cracks from her spine while she was rising to her full height, her face holding a grimace. They both eased off and let Lori lead her over to the fire, where she could sit and relax before she did herself any further damage.

Things stayed relatively calm, only an incident where Andrea held a gun to Rick’s head when he tried to talk her away from Amy and when Daryl blew up about leaving Merle to die in the city. The pill that Daryl had given her left her disoriented and tired, but she wasn’t able to fall asleep and instead watched the motions of the group for nearly an hour before Jacqui yelled out.

“A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!” she yelled out as she stepped away from the man in question, looking back toward the others. Shane rose up with his gun in hand, everyone else becoming alert as well.

“Show it to us,” Daryl finally called out, the pick axe back over his shoulder. The camp had antagonized his girlfriend, he wasn’t going to let them get away with it so he’d use that against them. Jim panicked, though, and grabbed the nearest shovel as a weapon, moving to face the men of the camp. They all tried to talk him down, some ordering him to drop the shovel. T-Dog got to him first and took his arms from behind, forcing him to drop the shovel.

“I’m okay,” Jim began to chant as Daryl ran up and lifted Jim’s shirt, revealing the circular pattern of an open mouthed bite at the base of his ribcage. Jamie tensed up where she was sitting at the sight of the mark, Lori doing the exact same where she was standing a couple feet away.

T-Dog and Daryl released Jim at the same time, backing away from the distraught man. Daryl immediately moved in Jamie’s direction, knowing that she was hurt and weak, the painkiller that he had given her probably making her disoriented as well. There was no way that she would be able to take on a walker in her state. It was his responsibility to keep her safe. He looked back at her over his shoulder, seeing that she was alert in her seat and watching what was going on carefully. She looked ready to run should she need to.

When the group all gathered together to decide Jim’s fate, Jamie had Lori help her over to stand with everyone. Daryl kept a careful eye on her, noticing the faint sway that she had about herself when she tried to stand still. He was relieved to see that she wasn’t in as much pain as she had been before he gave her the pill, but the side effects of the painkiller were also prominent.

“I say we put a pick axe in his head and the dead girls and be done with it,” Daryl said first when no one seemed to want to be the first to breach the topic that they had crowded together for.

“Is that what you’d want,” Shane asked, looking up sharply, “If it were you?”

“Yea,” Daryl answered immediately, “And I’d thank you while you did it.” Jay reached her hand out to lay a sweaty palm on Daryl’s equally sweaty arm. The idea of having a pick axe put into his head unsettled her and she found the mental picture that it brought about draining all colour from her face. Daryl pulled off one of the gloves that he was wearing to place his hand over hers discretely, knowing what was upsetting her.

“I hate to say it and I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl’s right,” Dale spoke up, motioning over to the hunter as he spoke.

“Jim’s not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog,” Rick spat out scornfully, never once looking up from the ground. Jamie put a hand to her head when everyone started to try and talk at once, feeling Daryl’s bare hand move to the back of her neck and grip reassuringly.

“The line’s pretty clear,” he threw in himself, “Zero tolerance for walkers.”

“What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure,” Rick started again, looking up at the people around the circle. Jay leaned her head on Daryl’s shoulder, looking passed him to where Jim was sitting at the back of the RV. She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought of what was happening, how the group was slowly being torn to bits from one bite. This was what happened when there was one slight bit of unrest within the group. They didn’t function very well.

“I’m getting tired,” she mumbled aloud, feeling Daryl wrap an arm around her waist when she leaned more heavily against him to the point that if he hadn't been there, she would have fallen over. He helped her to sit down on a log nearby that had been made into a makeshift bench, not wanting her to collapse onto her back or side and injure herself further.

Jamie watched as Daryl pulled away, looking irritated as he listened to the argument of ‘CDC, no, Fort Benning’ going on behind him. He picked up the pick axe that was crusted with the dead of the walkers and camp members, turning to look at Jim.

“You go looking for Aspirin,” he said as he looked over to Rick, his features set before he turned to head toward Jim. “Do what you need to do, somebody’s gunna have to have some balls and take care of this damn problem!” By the time he had reached in front of Jim, the pick axe raised up, Rick at his gun to the back of his head.

“We don’t kill the living,” Rick said desperately to the back of Daryl’s head. He was surprised when a bandaged hand suddenly moved the gun away from Daryl, the other hand lowering the pick axe that Daryl was holding. Jamie was shaking on her feet, the tension of the group high as Daryl turned to look at her in surprise.

The women of the camp jumped at the loud crack that followed Jamie’s quick arm, her hand connecting with Daryl’s check. He dropped the pick axe to the ground in shock, his cheek burning in the wake of her slap. She glared at him tiredly before turning away and slowly making her way back to the fire pit that she had been resting at before.

Daryl watched her walk away before a moment before he looked over to Rick, the older man still watching him carefully. “That’s pretty funny, coming from a man who just had a gun to my head,” he growled out before stepping off, moving over to where Jamie had sat down as he rubbed his reddening cheek. He fell down to sit beside her without a word, knowing that she wasn’t going to look at him or acknowledge him being there until he said something.

“He’s gunna die anyway,” Daryl finally grumbled, looking at the dirt beneath his feet.

“But how he dies is not your decision to make. It’s his. If he wanted a pick axe in his brain, he’d already have come to you,” Jamie mumbled back, her eyes drooping as she fought sleep. Daryl let out a sigh as he looked over to her slowly, watched her shift around to try and alleviate some of the heat of the late morning.

“Fine, I won’t kill ‘im,” Daryl said sharply, watching her lips twitch in a repressed smile.

“I suppose that’s the only promise I’ll get from you,” she said softly, opening her eyes fully to look over at him. Her hand lifted tiredly to his cheek, her knuckles gently caressing the reddened skin as a look of regret filled her eyes. “I’m sorry about that,” She said softly, “But I couldn’t let you go off hurting him and end up with Rick shooting you.”

“Right,” Daryl scoffed, standing up. “Come on, you can sleep in my tent. B’fore you pass out,” he grumbled helping her up onto her feet and leading her over to where his tent was. Merle had his own, thankfully, so he didn’t have to worry about her raging about being near his brother’s things and beginning to throw them down the cliff side and into the quarry. “That painkiller ain’t gunna last forever, might as well sleep while ya can.”

He picked up her bag on the way by, ducking into his tent and pushing a bag of extra arrows out of the way. He helped her to sit down on the mattress that made up his bed, his sleeping bag thrown over top, before he began to go through her bag, locating a pair of clean pants and a white short sleeved shirt. He moved back over to the entrance to the tent and zipped it closed nearly all the way, getting a look from Jamie as she leaned back on her knuckles, avoiding her injured palms.

“Arms up,” he ordered seriously, watching as she raised an eyebrow at him curiously before sitting up again and lifting her arms up tiredly. Daryl crouched before her and took hold of the bottom of her shirt, not wanting her to sleep on his bed while she was covered in geek blood stained clothes. He hiked the shirt up past her ribs, which were more prominent that he had ever seen. The bruise on her side spread forward at the front of her ribs too, proving that she had at least cracked them. He pulled the shirt up the rest of the way, freeing her arms as well. More minor bruises, many of them healing already, littered her shoulders and collar, but he was relieved to see that she didn’t have any more from the city.

He leaned forward to place a gentle kiss against her collarbone, one of the few patches of clean skin, making her shiver in the hot space of the tent. His stubble and goatee ticked her skin, flushing her chest and cheeks. “Daryl,” She warned softly, too tired to do much else.

“Just sayin’ hello, Babe,” he replied back, his words muffled against her skin as he made his way up to her neck, pressing another kiss below her ear. He pulled back before he had to force himself to and pulled out another fresh white shirt that was in with her clothes, letting her put that on by herself. “Lie down,” He ordered next, placing a hand on her flat stomach and gently manoeuvring her back down onto the bed before he pulled her boots off in one tug, the laces not tied completely up. “That’s a hazard, babe, what if we got attacked?”

“I won’t be able to do much runnin’ anyway,” she returned, getting a smirk from Daryl before she jumped at the feel of his hand at the button of her pants. “Hey,” she warned again, but he took no heed and slipped the button on the pants free, sliding the zipper down and revealing more skin. She glared at him silently for a moment before giving up and just lying back, letting him undress her.

His hands ran along her sides before slipping into the pants she was wearing, pushing them down as far as he could before the fact that she was lying on them got in the way. She jumped again when his hands slipped around her hips to her ass and ran downward, pushing the pants down to her thighs. She sighed softly at the feel of his hands on her person, finally beginning to relax when she realized that he would not actually do anything.

Considering that he knew she only ever wore boy short style underwear, he knew that she must have been out of wearable pairs for her to wear regular black panties for the first time that he’d even known. He was tempted to just leave her in her underwear, knowing that she was hot—both from the heat outside and the view he was receiving—but he didn’t want to risk anyone else stepping into the tent and seeing her half naked. He pulled the pair of sweat pants that he had remembered seeing her sleep in in the past and pulled those up her legs, getting a smack on the arm as he groped at her ass again when he was pulling on the new pants.

“You’re unbelievable,” she mumbled aloud, not even bothering to open her eyes. 

Daryl just grinned and leaned over her, his hands on either side of her shoulders as he looked down at her. She knew that he was above her and tiredly opened her eyes, the fact that she was lying down making it so much harder not to fall asleep. What they hell had he given her?

“I missed you,” she admitted softly as her hand lifted tiredly to his neck, running her hand along the skin there before she moved to trace a finger over his lips. Daryl didn’t linger another moment and ducked down to press his lips against hers, the soft feel of hers contrasting with the chapped and dry feel of his. Her hand pushed back through his hair to pull him closer to her, parting her lips slightly to take in his bottom one.

“Hey, Dixon, get out here, man!” T-Dog yelled from the outside of the tent, “This ain’t the time to take a nap, we’ve got work to do.”

Daryl pulled back from Jamie and glared over at the entrance to the tent, just wishing that he could get rid of the annoyance. However, Jamie was fast falling asleep and he felt like putting that pick axe somewhere that he wouldn’t get shot for. He looked back down at Jamie, her hand having slid from his hair suddenly, to see that she was beginning to doze away into sleep.

He helped to lay her out, flat on her stomach, and left her to sleep. She was nearly immediately out, her hands under her head on the pillow. At least then her back would have some proper time to heal. His eyes lingered on the exposed expanse of flesh on her lower back when her shirt rode up, showing the two dimples that were just above her sweat pants, before he slipped from the tent and zipped it most of the way closed behind him.


	11. Ripples

Jamie woke slowly, her brain fuzzy and her mind disoriented and out of order. She looked around herself at the tent she was in, taking a minute to try and place the surroundings. The time she spent with Daryl, half asleep, slowly came back to her, bringing a faint and tired smile to her lips. She pushed herself up carefully, her back and side beginning to ache again. The entire space she was in smelt so much like Daryl that it was almost like the times they had spent at the hunting cabin. Everything was marked with his smell; it was soaked into the walls there. She sat on the edge of his mattress and pulled her boots on gently, making sure that the laces were tied up so that Daryl couldn’t comment on them again.

When she rose from the tent, unzipping it quietly, she immediately noticed that things were different. The bodies were all gone, Andrea and her sister were no longer outside the RV and the day had begun to dim as the sun disappeared behind the trees. She stepped along carefully, taking it easy on the abused span of her back, and looked around for where everyone was. She soon spotted them all surrounding the fire, standing about or sitting and chairs and listening to Shane speak.

“Those of you that agree,” Shane was saying, looking around at the people that surrounded him. “We leave first thing in the morning. Okay?”

Daryl noticed Jamie approaching slowly from across the fire and immediately moved her way, the others following him with their eyes to see what he was doing. She looked confused, having slept the entire afternoon away, and looked to him for an explanation.

“We’re leaving in the morning, heading to the CDC,” Daryl said immediately, knowing that she would want to go wherever Rick and the others went. She nodded her head in understanding, not needing any further detail. “Sleep enough?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever sleep enough,” she replied back simply. “But I do feel much better,” She added on when she saw his face begin to draw into a frown. “Now all I need is food and a bath.” She leaned forward against Daryl’s chest for a moment before she looked over to where people were starting to separate, moving to go and back their things, prepare dinner and set up for the night.

“You can clean up down at the quarry,” Daryl suggested, moving over toward his tent again. “You may not have all those fancy soaps and scrubs-”

“Hey,” she said, stopping him, “You have never complained about those before. You always said that you liked the way they smelled.” She stepped up to him again, chest to chest with a mischievous look in her eyes. “You liked the way it made my skin feel,” she teased softly, taking his calloused hands into her slightly smoother ones.

“Don’t start what you can’t finish, darlin’,” Daryl warned softly as he looked over to where Shane was watching him and Jay carefully. He glared over at the other man, not liking that he was paying any attention to his woman at all. Preferred it when he was drooling after Lori all the time, at least he didn’t have to worry about his fiancé. “Come on, Angel, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Daryl brought his crossbow and a shotgun with him down to the quarry, Jamie carrying her freshly cleaned knife and bag down with her. Daryl looked up toward the camp and manoeuvred them around the rocks until they reached a place that wasn’t completely visible to Dale atop his RV, already getting a look from most of the camp that told him they knew not to come down for a while.

Jamie sat down on one of the rocks and began to pull her boots and socks off, showing the sharp contrast of pale and tan from hardly ever wearing sandals. He could clearly see the veins and tendons in the tops of her feet, just as he had always remembered. He also remembered that she had freezing cold feet from having bad circulation, often waking him up rather unpleasantly in the middle of the night.

She peeked up at the area that he had chosen for them, seeing that he had deliberately hid them from the camp and began to pull her shirt up, careful to put it in her bag since it was still clean, before ducking around the rock to remove her pants. The sports bra that Rick had found for her at the station was all that he could see as she ducked to pull the sweats off, throwing them at him afterword to put in her bag. She wore a playful smile on her face, familiar to him and bringing an anticipation that stirred in his gut like no other.

They hadn't truly had their moment of reunion yet, and he wasn’t going to let the others interrupt it when it came.

Jamie stepped over to the water that lapped at the pebbled shore, still remaining unseen to Daryl from where he stood. He took one last quick look back toward the path that led up to the camp before he pulled his stained green shirt off, tossing it nonchalantly onto the rock that Jay had hid behind before beginning on his belt, slipping his boots off at the same time. He could hear Jamie deliberately splash in the wash softly, spurring him on.

When he finally had stripped down to his boxers he looked around the rock for where she was, he spotted her farther out in the water, and she was low below the surface—only above her lips visible to him. She raised an eyebrow at him suggestively, her eyes looking over his defined body. Daryl made a sharp ‘tch’ sound at the challenge and stepped into the water, the chill a welcomed feeling on the hot day of work. 

Jamie lifted herself above the water to her shoulders, grinning to him as he approached her. His boxers soaked through quickly as he stepped deeper and deeper, getting closer and closer until he was up nearly to his shoulders as well, right in front of her. She didn’t try to play with him as he thought she could, darting away and trying to get him to catch her as she had done in past experiences, but instead she stepped up to him right away.

Her hands lifted from the water to frame his face, the water running down his neck and beginning to clean his skin. “I love you,” she whispered softly before she pulled him down to meet her in a kiss, finding absolutely no resistance from the man before her. Daryl’s arms wrapped around her waist, gentle at her back and right side, and pulled her closer with a hand at her lower back. She pulled her face away from him for a moment to press one quick kiss to his lips before she began to litter them all over his face, moving down to his neck as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“I looked for you,” he rasped out against her hair, the strands already wet passed her shoulders but still dry atop her head. “I looked fuckin’ everywhere.” His grip on her back tightened for a moment before he remembered her back and he pulled away from her, looking down at her face. Dipping his hands into the water, he instructed for her to close her eyes before he poured the water down her face, watched as it glided along her skin.

“I looked for you, too,” she whispered as soon as the water had stopped falling onto her face, Daryl’s hand soon beginning to rub at the skin, washing off the dirt there.

“I wanted to stay behind,” he said carefully, feeling her hands place onto his sides lightly as he continued to wash her skin. “Merle made me leave. He kept telling me that you’d died, just like everyone else. I never believed him,” he explained, looking away from her face for a moment as his expression soured in anger. “Fuckin’ prick.”

“Hey,” she said softly, opening her eyes to look at him, drawing his attention back to her. “I’m alive, ain’t I? Forget about Merle, if he hasn’t come back now, then he won’t. If he knew that there was Rick and Shane back at camp, he’d also know that he’d be better off on his own. If Rick hadn't handcuffed him to that roof, Shane would have shot him eventually. He seems like that kind of person,” she whispered the last part, leaning in closer so only he could hear, as though there was someone else around.

“Or you might’ve,” Daryl added in, causing her to smirk. She stepped back from him and took a deep breath before ducking down under the water, her golden blonde hair floating at the surface for a moment before it disappeared below as well. He could still see the faint shadow of her below the surface, scrubbing at her hair to try and get as much oil out as she could. When she finally came back up her face was cleared of all dirt, the tan skin of her shoulders glistening with water. She pulled him further into the water, deeper, until she could easily wash at his face, removing the grime, dirt and sweat that had been building up.

“You need to clean more,” she commented, before instructing him to hold his breath and having him duck below the surface of the water and begin to scrub at his hair. They pulled apart for a minute to wash the rest of themselves, Jamie far more furiously than Daryl did so that she was sure there wasn’t a single trace of walkers blood left on her skin or her hair, or anywhere.

“Yer gunna take yer skin off,” Daryl drawled as he slipped his arms around her and took hold of her wrists, standing behind her in their secluded space of the quarry. He took in her natural smell, pressing his nose against the hair at her temple.

“I hate the feeling of their blood on me,” she mumbled to him, her hands rising up to run her hands back through his hair, making the wet strands spike up as she went. “Come on, I’m gunna get rid of that facial hair,” she said as she began to pull away. The look on his face told her that he’d misinterpreted and found herself laughing. “You can keep the goatee, ya fool, I mean your stubble.”

Daryl followed after her more easily then, the sour look that had adorned his face disappearing. He didn’t know how much he trusted her with a blade of any kind near his face, but he had never seen a cut on her body from shaving before so he trusted that she’d be careful. He couldn’t help but to hang back in the water and admire the view as she stepped up carefully along the rocks in nothing but her underwear and bra, wishing nothing more than to take them off.

She pulled out a shave blade that she had stashed away while in the showers of the sheriff’s station with Rick, Morgan and Duane. Daryl didn’t question the men’s shave blade that she had with her and pulled his body up to sit on one of the other rocks, the cooling air rising bumps on both of their skin. She took her time shaving his face, knowing that his cheeks sometimes got irritated after shaving. She would rhythmically tap the blade on the rock to remove the excess hair before resuming, just as careful as before.

“Got another one of them fer yer legs,” Daryl asked as he motioned to the blade that she had just finished using on his face. “’Cause those legs ‘a yers-” She cut him off with a mock slap to his smooth cheek, causing him to snort in laughter and lean away from her assault. She moved down to the water to clean off the blade before pulling herself onto the rock and switching from the blade she had used on him to a blue one, the same that she had used the last time she showered. “Oh, so ya do!”

“Watch it, Dixon, or you’re sleeping with the fish tonight,” She warned, pointing the blade at him before she commenced with shaving the stubble that had grown on her legs. Daryl had already seen the process enough that he was fine with it, watching as she glided the blade up her wet legs in perfect lines, not missing a single hair along the way. Once she was finished with the first leg, she let Daryl run his hand along it with the excuse of looking for hair. In truth, he just wanted to touch her. In any way that he could.

They didn’t linger long after they had finished up, pulling on their dry clothing after stripping of their wet undergarments to dry overnight. Jamie commented on being less than pleased at being forced to wear the uncomfortable underwear again while on their way back up toward the camp. Carol and Lori had looked over when they heard the sound of someone being slapped, seeing Daryl and Jay making their way up to trail, Daryl grinning like a fool and trying to hide it, Jay blushing like a teenager and failing just as badly as her man. 

“Why dontcha just not wear any?” he had asked. She hadn't taken in well.

It didn’t take long for their things to be packed up. Since Daryl didn’t spend much time in camp and Jamie only had one bag with her, they were finished within an hour and were making their way over to the group that was cooking up dinner, canned corn and beans that night. Jamie’s stomach had been bothering her since she woke up and the smell of food was almost too much to bear, she was almost drooling.

“Wow,” Dale said as a greeting when they came over, a small smile in place. “I almost didn’t recognize the two of you. You look much better now, dear, I bet that was just what you needed?” he asked, looking to Jamie ask he spoke. Her wet hair was pulled back into a bun until she could brush it, but there were some strands that had fallen loose.

“I do feel a lot better, I was starting to forget what it felt like to be clean,” she joked back as she looked down at herself, glad that the white shirt was thick enough that it wasn’t completely prominent that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Daryl did not seem to mind, however.

“What do you know, Dixon, I was starting to think dirt was your natural skin colour,” Shane threw in as he moved over to join in as well. Jacqui held down a laugh as Jamie discretely flipped Shane the bird, hiding the hand gesture from the two kids that were sitting with their mothers. Daryl smirked and draped an arm around her shoulders, getting a disgruntled look from the cop.

“How’re your ribs?” Rick asked when a silence fell over the group, his attention turning to Jamie.

“They’re still really sore, but the sleep that I got definitely helped. So did that painkiller,” she said as she accepted two bowls from Carol with a quick thank you, handing one down to Daryl. The group was slightly unsettled at the sight of the youngest Dixon sitting with them, not quite accustomed to it. However, they didn’t want to be rude to Jamie, because they all knew that if he left then she’d go too, so they welcomed him as well.

“Is it true that you have a tattoo?” Carl asked suddenly, turning eyes toward him. Jay didn’t seem surprised or offended, only nodded her head to the young boy to quench his curiosity.

“Yep, on my back. They’re angel wings, pretty big, too,” she described, feeling that arm that Daryl had placed around the back of her chair begin to trace where he had memorized the tattoo to be. She repressed a shiver at the feel of his hands on her back, the pleasant feeling so wonderful.

“Can I see it?” Carl asked excitedly. Jamie just chuckled as his enthusiasm, but she knew that she couldn’t show him the tattoo. Daryl had told her that only half of it was even visible, and she didn’t want Carl to see the damage on her back.

“Not right now, it’s too dark and it’s dinner. Eat.” Carl looked slightly crestfallen, but started to eat anyway. “I’ll show you another time, a’right?” she added on, not wanting to leave the boy so down after all that he’d been through. He smiled again and nodded, resuming eating. She looked up to Rick to make sure that it was alright that she’d said that, seeing him nod with a faint smile.

“Why angel wings?” Dale asked suddenly, having been pondering on it while she was talking with Carl.

“My mother passed away when I was 18, her names was Angelica. She always had things that were themed with angels. I’d actually gotten it on a complete whim, I was still mourning; not quite thinking straight. I went down to the nearest tattoo place and got it done. A lot of people told me I’d regret it but to this day I am proud to have it there.”

“Then you went back four more times to get additional details on it,” Daryl added on as he leaned on the arm he had on the back of her chair, allowing his body to discretely lean in her direction. “The guys there knew you by name.” She smacked his leg lightly, not intending to hurt, before eating another forkful of her dinner.

“They had to work on it five times?” Andrea asked softly, looking pale and tired. Jamie’s smile softened so that it wasn’t too bright but she still looked happy.

“Yea, the first was just a basic outline, I added in more lines, detail and shadows every time I went back. My last one was when I was twenty one.”

The group continued to talk amongst themselves softly for a short while more, full darkness soon falling down on the camp. Jamie and Daryl soon fell out of the conversation entirely, just sitting back and leaning shoulder to shoulder, whispering to each other. Rick and Dale noticed their behaviour, the latter smiling at the change in the younger Dixon’s behaviour since he had returned to camp with Jamie. He was still a bit of a loose cannon at times, but nowhere near as bad as when Merle had been around. Before long, they rose to leave.

“I’ve been ordered to go sleep,” Jamie announced when they looked in their direction, “So I will bid you all good-night, and I’ll see you in the morning.” Lori and Carol smiled softly in amusement at her complete opposite attitude as Daryl, watching as he guided her back through the darkness toward where his tent was located, the shotgun that Rick had given him still in his hand with his arm over Jamie’s shoulders protectively.

“Well,” Dale said first once the couple had disappeared into the tent, zipping it closed behind them. “This was not the way that I saw things happening when Daryl got back from his hunt.” Glenn grinned to himself as he silently agreed, wondering just how it was that two people that could be so different could have fallen in love.

“It’s not a bad thing, though,” Rick said softly. “Jamie kept telling me about the boyfriend that she was looking for, asking me about the family that I was looking for. Believe it or not, Daryl’s the reason that she’s still alive. She’s survived through hell just for him.”

In the tent, Jamie sat on the edge of the bed pulling off her boots as Daryl pulled off his shirt to sleep. She looked over the tattoos that he had on his own back, not as large as her one, but still there. His had colour, too. She put her boots off to the side to keep them out of the way before she pulled her bag over to herself and pulled out the long sleeved shirt that she had stolen from Daryl’s place when she went looking for him after it had been left behind.

“You ransacked my place?” Daryl asked in mocked annoyance, looking to her as she prepared to lift off the white shirt she had on in favour of the long sleeved one of his. She lifted an eyebrow at him in question before continuing, baring her entire left side to his eyes. It was still fairly dark in the tent, but he could make out the contours of her body, the shadows caused by her exposed ribs and the swell of her beasts above her flat abdomen.

“Yours is more comfortable,” she stated simply, pulling his shift over her head. She pulled her still wet hair from the band, rolling the elastic onto her wrist before pulling out her brush. Daryl fell to sit down as well, pulling off his own boots, before he popped open a plastic container and held something out to her.

“One more for tonight, then no more,” Daryl said as he let the painkiller fall into her hand. She nodded her head in understanding; coming to the realization that he must have gotten the pills from Merle’s dug stash. She took down the pill dry and quickly finished with her hair, feeling Daryl stretch out on the bed behind her. She deposited her brush in her bag before turning to face him. She could vaguely see that his arms were up with his hands tucked beneath his head, his bare torso expanding and relaxing as he breathed.

She crawled up along the small mattress until she was hovering over him, her hair falling down like a curtain on one side. “Thank you,” she whispered softly, seeing faintly as he blinked his eyes before he lifted one of his hands to run his fingers along her freed hair, not a single resistance meeting his ministrations.

“I love you,” he said back, the three words that she had been waiting to hear finally bringing a smile to her lips. She bent down to press a kiss against his lips before she laid down flat, half lying on top of him as one of his arms came around her waist, pulling the sleeping bag over her at the same time, warding off the chilled air of the night in the process.

“I love you, too.”


	12. Dying to Leave

To wake up to soft kisses pressed along her neck and shoulder, Jamie almost felt like crying in joy. She smiled at the feel of Daryl’s arm holding onto her waist tightly, the two of them having moved throughout the night and now lying on their sides with Jay pulled flush against Daryl’s chest. She opened her eyes when his lips brushed along her jaw, looking up into his eyes when he pulled back.

“Mornin’,” he greeting quietly, nearly silent inside the tent. She couldn’t hear any movement outside and the tent was still dark enough that it seemed he had woken her right at dawn. She smiled up at him and lifted a hand to his face, placing her palm on his cheek gently. In replacement of a ‘good morning’ she pressed her lips against his, wrapping him in her arms and drawing him as close as she could.

Daryl’s arms slipped beneath her back, causing her to arch her spine and moan deep in her throat. She ignored the tender pain that accompanied his touch when his left arm pressed against the sore side of her back. She knew that he was being as gentle as he could, since he usually was barely gentle at all—and truth be told she missed that—and her heart went out to him for it.

They soon manoeuvred themselves around so that Jamie was straddling Daryl’s stomach so that her back no longer taking unneeded pressure. Her hands framed his face, keeping a hold of him as she pressed into the kiss. His hands slid up the shirt that she was wearing to caress along her sides, his left hand as gentle as he could be on her bruised ribs. She shivered at the sensation, even with the sticky, humid air that was already filling the tent, and arched her back toward him.

The world faded away for them as they became immersed in one another; lips pressing, hands roaming, teeth scraping flesh. Jamie felt as though she were drowning in the sensation but could not pull herself away or stop herself. She felt like a drug addict that was finally getting her fix. Her body pressed down against his in such a sign of desperation that she nearly feared she was crushing him.

They were startled apart at the sounds of others moving about outside, greeting one another and saying their good mornings. Both were still gasping for air, their hair having lost the bedhead style and acquired a more ‘sex hair’ looking fashion. Daryl’s hair was mussed about from having Jay’s hands gripping and running through it, her own hair flipped around and fluffed from Daryl’s attempts to bring her face closer to his.

“Good morning,” she finally rasped out, getting a smirk in return.

ᵻ

Jamie stepped up to Rick as all of the other members of the camp finished loading their things into the vehicles, choosing who was riding where. Morales and his family had already announced that they weren’t going to be travelling with them, resulting in a long tearful goodbye from the other members of the group. Rick looked away from the car that he was standing beside, missing most of its parts, and a note tapped to the driver’s door.

“I’m worried about him,” she said softly as a greeting, looking down at the note that Rick had written in a thick, black permanent marker. “Him and Duane.”

“Me too,” Rick said mournfully, looking down at the note as well. His eyes soon turned to where the trucks were beginning to start up one by one, Lori sitting in the passenger seat of the truck that he would be driving. “We should get going,” he began, looking to Jamie.

“Rick,” she said quickly when he moved to leave, stopping him in his tracks. “I never got the chance to truly thank you. You came back, just like you’d promised.” Rick let a smile shine through, knowing that she truly was grateful. She stepped up to wrap her arms around his neck in a hug, feeling as he returned the embrace right away, but was still careful of her abused back. “I don’t know what I’d have done if I had been on my own.”

“I’d have come back no matter what, Jay, just like I promised,” Rick assured, pulling away to take hold of her arms. She nodded her head, smiling up at him. “And I guess that it’s pure, dumb luck that we both found who we were looking for.” She let out a sob mixed laugh and patted Rick on the shoulder as she stepped away. She glanced over to where Daryl was waiting in his truck, leaning his elbow on the door as he chewed on his thumb nail. She had tried to break that habit.

“Time to go,” she finally said as she turned to the direction of the truck, hearing Rick step away to head toward his family. They both felt that tug in their gut as they stepped away from the car, from the note that was left behind for Morgan and Duane. They both felt like they were leaving a piece of themselves behind.

“Happy now?” Daryl asked as she walked passed his window, getting a smack on his arm that knocked his thumb away from his mouth and saved his remaining nail. He glowered after her as she stepped around the front of the truck to the passenger side, pulling herself up onto the seat carefully.

“Yes, actually,” she finally answered as she closed the door and turned to face him with a faint smile. The truck lurched forward behind the others, making Jamie wince as her back rocked backward against her seat. She looked out the window as they trees passed by, leaving behind the camp that she had barely known. Daryl, however, had become accustomed to having a place to come back to after his hunts. “Everything’s gunna be okay,” she mumbled to herself, the wind from the open window pushing back her loose hair.

“You know that, huh?” Daryl asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. She smirked and looked over to him, a glint in her eye that hold him she had things about her that had changed since he had last seen her. She was still the same in many ways, she didn’t act differently with him but there was an air about her that just screamed ‘no bullshit’. She had never let herself be walked over in the first place, but now it was life or death.

The fast wind tickled Jamie’s bare feet from where they were propped up on the open window, her head resting against Daryl’s thigh as he drove through the slightly uneven terrain of the worn path that led to the hunting cabin he had taken over after his father left. Jamie’s hands were tracing the creasing along the inside of his right palm, the other holding the steering wheel.

“Your hands are so much larger than mine,” she finally said, holding her hand up to his, palm to palm, and measured them out. Her fingers were an entire joint shorter than Daryl’s were, slightly darker than hers as well. She prided herself with the amount of time she spent outdoors, but still paled in comparison to Daryl.

“Damn ugly, too,” Daryl remarked, looking down at their hands. His were rough, calloused and scared from years of hard physical work and hunting, while hers were smooth, the odd scar covering her skin from an accident as a child or some other time. He often marvelled on how her hands could be so smooth, since she used them a lot on a day to day basis.

“I like your hands,” she said in protest, looking up at him from her upside down position, her hair loose and draping over his right leg. “They’re strong; they show that you’ve worked hard. I like your ruggedness,” she admitted, smiling sheepishly. Daryl raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her, but her attention was back on their joined hands.

“Ain’t that poetic,” Daryl drawled out, getting a slap on the wrist and a mock glare from his girlfriend.

“Shut up, Dixon.”

Jamie smiled from her place in the passenger seat, looking out at the passing trees and fields. The wind blew in from the open window, blowing her hair back cooling her face in the hot Georgia air. She looked over to where Daryl was focusing on the road, his hand at his mouth as he chewed on the thumb nail. He caught her look out of the corner of his eye and quickly pulled it away, lowering it to the steering wheel. Jamie scooted toward him until she was sitting in the middle seat, taking the hand nearest to her from the steering wheel.

“What’s gotten into you?” Daryl asked, surprised at her gentle actions. He was expecting her to scold him again for chewing on his nail.

“I’m having a nostalgic moment,” she said back wistfully, placing their hands palm to palm. His were still a joint longer than hers, but the difference in tan had changed a lot since they started dating. The amount of time that she spent out with him at the cabin or just in the outdoors had drastically changed her physicality.

“Damn, that’s never good,” he remarked sarcastically, glancing down at their hands briefly before he returned his eyes to the road. She didn’t scold him at all, just moved closer to him yet again, lacing her fingers through his and leaned against his side, her head falling to rest on his shoulder.

“Do you remember when you first told me how you felt?” she asked softly, still smiling as she looked down at their hands, her free one tracing all the tiny scars that had accumulated over the years. Daryl snorted at her question, causing her to grin. Of course he remembered.

“I was drunk, jealous and pissed off. Of course I remember,” he said back with a bite to his words. “That bastard shouldn’t have been looking a’ you that way,” he said in a low voice, a dangerous tone that she knew all too well. “Family or not.”

“Especially family,” she corrected automatically. “I’ll never forget the look on Merle’s face right before you punched him. It had to be the most priceless thing I’ve ever seen. The broken nose was just the cherry on top.” Daryl threw his head back and laughed, knowing that of the list of things that Jamie loved to see, Merle getting his ass kicked was very high, if not number one. “You sat me down that night—completely hammered—and told me that I was never allowed to look at, talk to, flirt with or touch another man ever again.”

Daryl winced slightly at the foggy memory of him sitting her down on her apartment sofa, pointing at her and yelling out a set of rules. They hadn't even been dating. Then she had just smiled, stood up and looked in directly in the eye before asking “All except you, though, right?” He didn’t remember saying anything to answer, and Jamie had always told him that he didn’t have the chance to, before she kissed him, and then walked off to go to bed, saying that he could have the couch that evening.

“I bet you’re glad I didn’t follow those rules, otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now,” she added on after a minute, bringing his hand up to kiss the back of his palm. The tendons were standing out against his skin slightly from gripping her hand back, a few faint freckles still visible to her. Daryl grunted as a show of agreement, causing Jamie to laugh slightly and lie her head down on his shoulder again, the same wood and soil smell that always seemed to cling to him surrounding her.

Jamie found herself looking up an incredibly threatening finger.

Daryl stood before her with a menacing look about him, but the fact that he was staggering on his feet from the amount of alcohol he had consumed at the bar made his strict, no nonsense look seem only comical. She had to fight herself from grinning since she knew it would only piss him off further; her attempt resulted with her having a pursed look to her lips that made her seem like she had just sucked on a lemon.

“You stay away from him,” Daryl lectured, his words slurred slightly, “And every other guy. I don’t care if ya think he’s attractive, you ain’t even allowed to look at ‘im. A’right?” he demanded, stepping forward when his bodyweight swayed that way. “No lookin’, no talkin’, no touchin’! Definitely no fuckin’ flirtin’!”

“So let me get this straight, you’re forbidding me from having any kind of direct contract with men?” Jamie asked innocently, leaning her chin on her fist with her elbow on her thigh. Daryl seemed to pause a moment, processing her question before glaring at her.

“Yes. Yer mine, Angel.”

The admission shocked Jamie enough to silence her, all teasing nature evaporating. Daryl had never been so bold to lay some kind of claim to her before, nor had he ever reacted so violently to her interacting with men at the bar, either. She leaned back into her sofa as her hand rose to her mouth, her mind trying to process what was going on. She had been joking around with Merle in the bar, less irritated because of the alcohol, when Daryl had pulled her off, completely ignoring the booming laughs of his brother as he wiped the blood off his face from Daryl’s punch.

“All except you, though, right?” she suddenly asked, watching as a blank look adorned his face, causing her to smile again—just a small smile—and shake her head in amusement. Merle and Daryl had one thing in common when they were drinking, and that was that they have absolutely no brain to mouth filter. Things were just blurted out as they came to mind and they often got in trouble with the people around them for it.

Daryl was left silent as he winced when his fuzzy mind finally realized that he had sworn all men off of her, including him. Jamie let out a short laugh before pulling herself up from the sofa, standing before Daryl. The heels that she was wearing for their night out evened their height, allowing her to look him in the eye with a faint smirk. Before he had a chance to order her back onto the couch again, she leaned forward and pressed a faint kiss to his lips, her hand rising up to ghost her fingertips across his freshly shaved cheek. She didn’t give him time to respond before she pulled away again and gave his chest a firm pat before turning toward the short hallway that led down to her bedroom.

“You can take the couch tonight, Daryl, but don’t make it a habit.”

Jamie was pulled from her musings when the truck started to slow down, the line of vehicles that they had pulling to the side of the road in a forested area. She looked up toward the lead truck, noticing immediately that the RV seemed to be smoking. She remembered Dale talking about how the truck wouldn’t make it very far without repairs. It seemed that they had reached that limit.

“Gotta be fuckin’ joking,” Daryl grumbled out as he shifted the truck into park, leaning back in his seat and throwing his arm over Jamie’s shoulders. She peaked into the rear view mirror to see that Shane was pulling to a stop behind them in his jeep, jumping out almost immediately.

“Come on, let’s see what we can do,” she ordered easily as she popped his door open, climbing over his lap to get out of the truck. Daryl swore faintly when she purposely slipped her leg gently across his lap. She turned to face him once she was back on her feet, looking up at him from the ground. The sun was beating down on her face and she could already feel her body beginning to perspire at the lack of air movement. “Comin’?”

“I need a minute,” he growled back, shooting her a look. She smirked to herself before turning to approach the trucks, walking with the others as everyone moved up to the RV to see what the problem was. Dale and Rick were already there, trying to think up something. Apparently they had needed a part from the truck that they assumed Merle to have taken, and there was no other way that they could fix it unless they found a replacement hose.

Daryl came up a minute later, his crossbow in hand, giving her a look of warning. She just smiled innocently and turned her attention back to the others, turning her attention to the distance when Shane said that he saw something through the binoculars.

“I can try and fix something up for ya,” she finally offered, seeing the group turn to look at her, as though they had forgotten that she was even there. “As much as I hate Merle, he taught me a lot of things about different engines.” She looked over to where Daryl looked annoyed.

“I’s true,” he threw in, seeing them glance over to him. “Spent hours in that damned garage. Nearly the only time they weren’t trying to kill one another.”

“Get me a new hose and I can patch you up to last at least until the city.” Rick and Dale shared a look before nodding, giving Shane a nod that told him to get going on his jeep to try and find what Jamie would need, taking T-Dog with him as Rick disappeared into the RV to go and talk with Jim. Jamie stood with Dale, taking a look at the cooked engine inside of the mobile home.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Andrea asked as she stood off to the side.

“More than you,” Jamie answered back, not meaning to sound so harsh but still getting faintly irritated with the woman. Her baby sister had died, she knew that it would fuck her up for a little while, but she needed to stop lashing out at other people. Jamie had a strong feeling that she was receiving some of the blame for what happened to the rest of the camp that night since Rick and Daryl had been so adamant about going back to the city for Merle, the guns and her.

“Whatever,” Andrea scoffed as she stepped off, leaving Dale to watch after her in concern. Jamie noticed that he was giving her a look that told her that she may have been too hard on the woman, and she sighed as she pulled her hands away from the engine, spotted with grease.

“I know that was harsh, but she can’t keep blocking everyone out, then lashing out when she finally does talk. She’s not a baby; it’s the new way of life here. People are going to die, you can’t let it weaken you. I don’t have any siblings that I can say ‘I know how you feel’ about, but I watched both of my parents die before their time and it’s pretty much the same.”

Dale’s eyes showed his sympathy for her before she turned away to face the burning engine again, beginning to pry free the ruined hose that had been repaired with so much tape that it had nearly melted it onto the engine. She had to pull her hands back several times before she ended up getting burned before she had finally ripped the old hose free. Daryl was an ever present shadow, his crossbow resting on his shoulder as he looked about for any sign of danger.

“Do you mind?” Jamie finally asked in a low voice when Daryl appeared behind her for the fifth time in almost ten minutes, his body heat only serving to add to the discomfort of the sun on her back. His breath was ghosting on her neck as he faked looking in at what she was doing, turning his head enough so that when he spoke, his lips brushed her ear.

“Payback’s a bitch, Babe,” he answered in a husky voice, pressing his chest to her back. The sweat that soaked his shirt dampened hers further. She felt her stomach flutter before she jabbed her elbow backward to force him away and give her space. He laughed deeply at her reaction before he let his emotionless mask fall into place and resume his lookout for danger.

Shane soon returned with the parts that she needed and then some, T-Dog remaining behind to make sure that she didn’t need any help. She looked up to see that Rick and Shane were moving Jim over to the forest to rest, the group following after to be there to say their goodbyes. She was able to convince T-Dog to go as well, since he had known Jim better than she did, while she remained behind so that she would have the RV repaired for when they were ready to leave.

She had always been bad when it came to keeping her hands in good condition whenever Merle was teaching her, often cutting up or burning herself. She was more careful than she had ever been before as she attached the new hose with extreme precision, her head nearly shoved inside the engine to get the best look that she could. She only glanced up when she was sure that she had done all she could, only knowing what Merle had taught her briefly on the subject, and looked over to where the others were beginning to depart from their farewell to Jim.

She could see when Daryl lingered a minute, his crossbow still propped up on his shoulder, before he turned away from the dying man and made his way over to the path that led back down to the road. Jamie turned back to the mobile home and placed the front grating back on, nodding to Dale to try starting it up as she walked passed. She looked up to the front windshield as he turned the key in the ignition, starting the truck back up. No smoke emerged from the engine this time.

“Yes, I am that brilliant!” she cheered, getting a grin from Dale in the front seat before his mood returned to mourning of losing another group member. She made sure that everything that she had used was packed away and returned to where it belonged before she moved down to where Daryl was waiting outside his truck, squinting in her direction against the sun. She greeted him with a kiss before sliding into the truck through the driver’s door. She shrieked in surprise when Daryl smacked her ass on her way across the seats, chuckling to himself as he watched her face flush in embarrassment and anger.

She waved to Jim as their truck drove by, feeling the sadness that gripped everyone at the sight of the man lying at the base of the tree. He wouldn’t last until nightfall, she was sure of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for the kudos and comments thus far, it's always wonderful to see how much everyone loves the story and I hope you continue to love it for many more chapters to come :)


	13. Desperation, Salvation

The dead bodies that littered the roads were hard to try and manoeuver around, the stench rolling off of them making the occupants of the trucks gag and wish they could hold their breath. Many held cloths to their mouths and noses so that they could breathe a bit easier, but it didn’t help much. The CDC stood before them, large and imposing, as night began to close in around them. The sky was already turning colours as the sun disappeared over the horizon, long ago hiding behind the buildings of the city.

Daryl and Jamie shared a look before opening the doors to Daryl’s truck, sliding out into the street. Jamie picked up her rifle from the back truck bed, looking across the space to Daryl as he retrieved his crossbow as well. The others were making their way up the walk to where the path led to the CDC’s front entrance, military trucks and soldiers lying about, mingling with the dead bodies of the citizens.

Jamie had that same gut wrenching feeling that she had gotten when she went into the last city with Rick.

Everyone stayed quiet as they made their way through the throngs of dead bodies, stepping over legs and torsos to try and get to the CDC faster. The weapon-less stood in the center of the group, pretty much just women and children, while the others all kept a circle of raised guns. Jamie was kept in front of Daryl, where he could always keep an eye on her, and she lingered close to Lori and Carl. She would do all she could to pay him back, and protecting his family was the top priority.

When they finally reached the front doors of the building, there were shutters down that blocked off the doors, heavy metal ones that looked like they could withstand a nuclear war. Jamie stood with her back to the building, looking out at the streets as Shane and Rick walked right up to the doors to check for a way to open them. Dark had already fallen and everyone was beginning to panic.

“We can’t be on the streets at night,” Jamie said softly, but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

“There’s nobody here,” T-Dog gasped out, looking over the building. There was no sign that the doors had been opened any time recently. Some of the shutters were covered in blood from people running at them or getting shot while attempting to get in.

“Then why are these shutters closed?” Rick asked challengingly.

“Automatic?” Jamie offered.

“Walkers,” Daryl called out, turning everyone’s attention toward the moving figure on the street. Jamie loaded the gun in her hands and lifted the scope, looking around the streets. There were several walkers in sight, with more beginning to come out of the woodwork every second. Her heart began to pound inside her chest as she tried to stay focused on what she needed to. Daryl took care of the walker that was closest, firing an arrow into its forehead so that a gunshot didn’t draw out more.

“Led us into a graveyard!” he yelled as he turned to face Rick, marching in his direction. Shane blocked his advance, pushing him back.

“He made a call-”

“It was the wrong damn one!”

“Daryl!” Jamie yelled, stepping in between him and Shane. “Picking a fight won’t change anything. We’ve got to stay calm and quiet,” she hissed out, placing a hand on his chest. His breathing was fast and heavy, a gun in one hand and his crossbow in the other. He lowered them away so that they weren’t pointed at her, looking down at her face. She could tell that he was furious, but it wasn’t as though Rick could have known.

“Rick, this is a dead end,” Shane said as he walked up to his friend, both men looking concerned as they tried to think of what to do. “Do you hear me?”

“Jamie’s right,” Lori added in, “We can’t be this close to the city after dark.”

Everyone began to talk at once, panicking and rushing about. Jamie was bumped from behind, hissing loudly when an elbow collided with her back. Daryl pulled her away from the warring group, his crossbow still up for any sign of a threat. He started to pull her in the direction that the others were rushing, back toward the vehicles.

“The camera!” Rick yelled, halting everyone in their tracks. “It moved!”

“You imagined it-”

“No, it moved,” Rick interrupted, stepping up to the shutters and looking toward the cameras. Jamie looked around at the group members, all looking doubtful as they heard Rick and Shane argue in whispers about whether or not the camera had moved. Jamie truly wished that Rick was right and that there was someone still inside, that they could still get into the CDC and away from the deadly night.

Rick began to panic and slam against the shutters, yelling at the camera. Jamie looked over to Lori, hearing her desperately trying to call her husband back. Daryl’s hand took hold of her arm and began to lead her away from the building, making his way toward his truck. Walkers stumbled their way toward them, everyone holding their guns at the ready. Daryl kept himself between her and the walkers at all time, aiming his crossbow up at them and preparing to fire.

With a loud scream of metal on metal, the shutters lifted and light flooded out, illuminating the front courtyard and all the people that stood upon it. They all were left in a moment of stunned silence, looking toward the brightness with surprise and unimaginable relief. They didn’t hesitate a moment longer and advanced into the building slowly, never lowering their guns.

“Hello!”

The yell alerted everyone, turning toward the sound of the male voice. A man stood down a corridor that led further into the building, a semi-automatic machine gun in his hand as he watched them carefully. He looked unkempt, his hair dishevelled and his clothes that of someone that was just getting ready to stow away and go to sleep.

“Anybody infected?” he called over to them, his voice echoing off the walls.

“One of our group was,” Rick started, “He didn’t make it.”

“Why are you here and what do you want?” the man demanded as he stepped forward to them, never lowering his gun. Jamie was unsettled by his behaviour, although she knew that it wasn’t something that was unjustified. In the world that they lived in, everyone was cautious now.

“A chance,” Rick answered honestly, his voice trembling. Jamie was concerned for a moment that he would send them back out, a fear that she was aware the others shared.

“That’s asking an awful lot these days,” the man said as he took more steps toward them, less cautious than before. He looked over their group slowly, seeing all their panting, fear filled faces, seeing black people, white people, city people and country people. They were a mismatched group, out of place in regular society. But in the world that they had been thrust into so suddenly, it wasn’t so strange to see. “You all submit to a blood test, that’s the price of admission.”

“Fine by me,” Jamie said loudly, looking around at everyone else. They nodded their heads in agreement, knowing that if all they needed to do was give some blood than they were fine with that. The man finally lowered the gun away from them and began to walk forward quickly.

“If you’ve got anything that you want to bring in you get it now, after this door closes it stays closed.” They didn’t take long to be sure that they had what they needed, their bags thrown over their shoulders as they quickly rushed back through the doors. They were closed quickly once more as soon as everyone was inside, the man locking it behind them with a key card, speaking into the system. “Seal the main entrance, cut off the power up here.”

The shutters fell closed, locking them in.

The man, who they all came to know as Dr. Edwin Jenner, led them over to a large industrial elevator that would take them down below to the basement levels. Jamie was cluttered into the back of the elevator with her gun pulled back over her shoulders, Daryl nearly hiding her away in the corner. He still had his gun out, the butt resting on his hip as he looked toward the man doubtfully.

“Doctors always go around packing heat like that?” he finally asked, breaking the silence in the metal box, as he eyed the automatic that the man was holding.

“There were plenty left lying around, I familiarized myself,” Jenner replied as he looked back toward Daryl. His eyes flicked back at where Jamie was left to peak over her boyfriend’s shoulder, her bright hazel eyes looked luminous in the lights of the elevator. He turned back around before Daryl thought that he was staring and faced the doors again. “But you look harmless enough,” he added on, looking around at them. He glanced down at where Carl was standing with Lori, looking up at him. “Except you,” he said in mock seriousness, “I’ll have to keep my eye on you.”

They soon piled out of the elevator, following after Jenner as he led them down white hallways. Lights were along the tops of the walls, small but bright enough to allow them all to see where they were going. They were underground, unsettling some of the group, but others felt safer at the thought of being able to stay far away from the dead.

“Welcome to Zone 5,” Jenner said as they all watched the lights come on in a circular area, illuminating desks and tables. Jamie looked about at the space, knowing that the room was still larger than that area alone, but wasn’t able to see through the darkness.

“Where is everybody?” Rick asked, leading the group down the ramp after Jenner. “The other doctors, the staff?”

“I’m it,” Jenner answered, “It’s only me here.” Jay couldn’t help but to feel almost cheated at the thought of a single man being at a place as large as the CDC. How could one man find a cure in a dying world? How could they really place all of their hope into a single person? The saying used to go that one person could change the world, but she highly doubted that this was what they meant.

“What about the person you were speaking with?” Lori called out, her voice echoing in the room. “Vi?”

“Vi!” Jenner yelled out, starting Jamie slightly at the sudden rise in his tone. “Say hello to our guests!” A pause followed after his initial order, leaving some of the camp survivors to wonder if he had spent so long inside the lab that he had begun to lose his mind. “Tell them ‘welcome’.”

“Hello, guests,” a computerized voice said throughout the room, seeming to come from all directions. “Welcome.” The computer went silent again, leaving them all to think on the fact that, yes, Jenner was completely alone at the CDC.

“I’m all that’s left.”

They soon found themselves in yet another room, sitting around as they got their blood taken one by one. Jamie watched as Andrea got her blood test done and over with, knowing that she was next. Daryl was ripping at the cotton swab that he had been given, fidgeting. She lifted a hand to run it back through his hair, fixing the messed strands. He leaned into the touch but continued to rip at the swab.

“Who’s next?” Jenner asked as Jacqui helped the lightheaded Andrea over to sit down. Jamie pulled herself to her feet, leaving her gun and bag with Daryl, and stepped over to the table and extended her left arm out to him; she had given blood before and already knowing the process perfectly. He cleaned the area with a new swab, shaking her arm to draw the vein up. Once the bright blue vein was visible, she looked away when he moved to prick her with the needle, making sure the keep herself relaxed.

“You seem to know the routine,” Jenner said as he watched her blood begin to flood the test tube.

“She’s an O- blood type,” Daryl explained before Jamie had a chance to say anything. “Donated all the time before the world went to shit.” The blonde looked over to where he was leaning against the wall, his hands having finally left the cotton swab but now he was chewing on his thumb nail again.

“Really?” Jenner asked, the question directed at her.

“Yea, both of my parents were as well. I grew up with the process,” she explained, looking down at the nearly full tube. Jenner was as gentle as one could be as he pulled the needle from her arm, a small bead of blood left behind. He pressed another swab to the source of the small bleed, allowing her to take over and put pressure on the injury.

“Now that that’s all done, would you like to eat?” Jenner asked, looking over the people before him. Not one person in the room didn’t perk up at the question—even Andrea and Jamie who were the weakest of the group since the loss of blood was still strong with them.

Before long, they were all sitting around the tables in the lunch room of the building, only a few lights on to allow them to see without using too much power. After the wine and liquor started flowing, everyone was much mellower than they had been for a long time. Food was laid out for them, water for the kids, and the conversations were open and light hearted. They were laughing for the first time in what felt like forever, all of the pain and loss that they had been going through just melting away as they finally allowed themselves to just enjoy the time they had.

“And when Carl is in Italy or France he can have wine with dinner,” Lori was saying as she placed her hand over Carl’s empty water glass to stop Dale from giving him even just a little bit. Jamie was laughing softly as she watched them, knowing that with Rick encouraging her to let their son try some she would cave. And she did, allowing Dale to pour a small amount into the cup.

She took a gulp of her own wine, nearly finishing off the glass, before more suddenly poured into it. She looked over her shoulder to where Daryl was leaning on the counter behind her, drinking straight from one of the bottles, and let him continue to refill her cup. She smiled up to him in her fuzzy minded state, watching the smirk tug his lips in return.

She looked over to watch Carl’s reaction when he took the cup from Dale and brought the glass to his lips, taking in a sip of the red wine. As soon as he had tasted the liquid, he slammed the cup down on the table and made a face, the remainder of the wine sloshing around in the glass. Everyone erupted into laughter again, Lori patting him on the back happily before pouring the small amount of the wine into her glass.

“Why don’t you stick to soda pop there bud?” Shane teased, watching the many faces that Carl was making—his face was slightly pink from the sharp tang of alcohol in the drink.

“Not you, Glenn!” Daryl yelled from behind Jay, pointing at the Asian as Glenn read the label on the bottle that he was holding. Glenn looked up, surprised, and smiled as he asked ‘what?’ in confusion. “Keep drinkin’ little man, I want to see how red your face can get,” Daryl challenged, causing Jamie to burst into laughter as she threw her head back to rest briefly on Daryl’s knee.

“Oh, don’t start Daryl. I remember your reaction when I first made you take straight shots of tequila,” she scolded, looking up to him daringly.

“Oh, don’t get me started on first time drinking experiences, darlin’,” Daryl countered, causing her to snort in laughter and look away. He did have more stories about her under his belt than she did of him, which would only serve to embarrass her in front of everyone. She knew when to back down, she wasn’t a fool. The people around the table made a long ‘oh’ as she raised her hands in surrender, causing Daryl to grin and pat her on her shoulder.

The crowd of survivors had their attention drawn toward Rick as he used a knife to tap against his wine glass, standing up as he did so. “It seems to me that we haven’t properly thanked our host,” he said in a strong voice as he lifted his drink toward where Jenner was sitting quietly. The group began to say a round of cheers before Daryl jumped in, lifting the bottle that he was holding.

“Booya!” he yelled out, looking around at everyone. Jamie lifted her wine glass and repeated the word, a beaming smile lighting her face for the first time since everyone had met her. The people around the table began to cheer the word as well, laughing at the randomness of it. Jamie knew the story behind Daryl’s ‘booya’ and couldn’t stop herself from laughing and looking up to him with a knowing glance.

“So when are you going to tell us what the hell happened here, doc?” Shane asked, sobering the mood right away. Many smiles fell away at the question, silence enveloping the group. Rick tried his best to get Shane to drop it, but the other cop was persistent. He wanted his answers and he wasn’t going to step down until he had them, even if it ruined the light mood that had finally come to the group.

“Well, when things got bad, people just…left,” Jenner began, looking to Shane as he spoke. The others were quiet as they listened, still holding their wine glasses in their hands with their eyes lingering on the tabletop. “They went off to be with their families. Then, when things got worse…the rest bolted.”

“Every last one?” Shane asked, getting a glare from some of the people at the table.

“No,” Jenner answered, looking Shane directly in the eye. “Many couldn’t face walking out the door. They…opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time.” He trailed off as he spoke, looking away from Shane’s eyes for the first time, down at the table top.

“But you stayed,” Andrea pointed out, “Why?”

“I just kept working,” Jenner answered honestly, “Hoping to do some good.” There was a brief silence in the room, before Glenn stepped forward to sit at the table, looking to Shane with a depressed expression.

“Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man,” he said softly. Jamie said a faint ‘here, here’ before she tipped back her glass and took down the rest of the wine. Many others did the same, draining down their wine until their glasses were empty. Shane was a very unappreciated man at the present moment, getting looks from the people around the table.


	14. Fan the Flames

Jamie sighed blissfully as she arched backward, letting the water run down her chest and stomach, her hands rising up to rinse along her neck. She tipped her head from side to side as the water ran along her skin, the warmth fighting away all of her troubles. She remembered how she had felt like her muscles just melted away when she was in the shower at the station, but that was nothing compared to now. She didn’t have near as much weighing on her shoulders as she had before, allowing her to ease herself into relaxing much more smoothly.

A strong set of hands suddenly slipped along her hips from behind, the calloused skin gliding along her water slicked flesh. She tipped her head back again, finding a strong shoulder to rest it on. Those strong hands glided forward along her sides to her stomach, a pair of lips pressing against her exposed neck. She took a careful step back until she was flush against his body, skin to skin.

“I never got to say hello,” she whispered through the silence, lifting her hands to place one on top of his and run the other through his hair. Daryl pulled her closer again him, the feel of her slippery skin making his heart race. His lips pressed against the crook of her shoulder, his tongue darting out to lick up beads of water that lingered on her skin.

He could hear her breathing beginning to pick up, the feel of her quick pulse reaching him through her back as her heart thrummed wildly. His lips continued to press kisses along her throat until he reached beneath her ear, nipping the tender skin that met him. His hands slipped up along her stomach, feeling the ridges of her ribs as he passed over them, until he came to the swell of her breasts. She took in a deep gasp of air as his palms covered over her breasts, pressing on them lightly.

Her arm hooked around his neck as she arched into his hands, seeking more touch and pressure. Just as quickly, she turned herself around to face him, breaking his contact with her for just a moment. Her lips found his as soon as she was facing him, pulling him forward and under the spray of water. His hands were firm on her back, the wine in her system dulling the tenderness of her back and side, keeping her locked against him.

His tongue brushed over her lips quickly, immediately gaining entrance to her mouth as she opened herself up for him. His tongue met hers, pressing, dancing, challenging. Her breath hitched as soon as she pulled back, the feel of him pressed fully against her drawing her attention to his hardening erection. He ground his hips against hers, drawing another gasp from her and quickly sealing her lips with another breathtaking kiss.

He pushed against her until he had her back against the cold tile of the wall, chilled water sending a jolt through Jamie as her skin touched it. Bumps rose along her flesh at the feel, her back arching her body forward into Daryl. He didn’t pull back from the kiss to allow either of them to breathe until he was sure that he was sated, the touch of her lips leaving a hot feeling in their wake.

“I love you,” she gasped out as her hands wrapped around his torso, pressing her lips to his ear as she began to chant in whispers, confessing to him over and over again. Her hands roamed along the toned muscles of his back, the water slicking his skin against hers, allowing her body and mind to familiarize with him once again.

Daryl leaned on his forearms against the wall behind Jamie, his breath panting heavily against her forehead as he tried to keep himself under control. The feel of her caressing hands, however, was nearly too much to bare. He stepped back once, dislodging her hands from his person, before he took a hold of her sides and lifted her off her feet before she had a chance to notice that he was gone from her reach. Her legs wound around his waist as her arms mirrored the action around his neck, drawing his face against her chest. He nipped the skin gently with his teeth, hearing the hitch in her breath from the action, before he lifted his head up slightly to swirl his tongue in the hollow at the base of her throat.

She gasped loudly for breath, her hands digging into his wet hair and pulling. Daryl’s head tipped back from the tug on his hair, looking up to meet her hazel eyes. His own bright blue eyes were dilated, his lips parted as he panted heavily. Her hands soothed the places where she had pulled on his hair before moving to stroke his face with her fingers tracing his goatee before she lowered her lips to press against his in a kiss.

“Please,” she begged softly against his lips, her hands framing his face as the water from her long hair dripped down onto his face. Daryl grunted at the one word that she uttered, the desperation in her voice spurring him into movement. His hands gripped at her thighs, pressing her back against the wall by pushing his chest against hers. He used his grip on her thighs to adjust her placement enough to press his erection against her core, the feel of her heated skin sending shivers down his spine.

“I’m right here, Babe,” Daryl gasped out in a husky voice, pressing his face into her hair. He groaned loudly as she rolled her hips accurately, beginning to slide him inside of her moist heat. One of her arms stayed firmly wrapped around his neck and shoulder while her other threw out to take a hold of the hollow part of the wall that acted as a shelf in the small shower.

Jamie’s head fell back, mouth open in a silent scream as Daryl thrust his hips up to fully embed himself inside of her. His hands clutched at her thighs in a near bruising grip, the muscles of her legs tense as she helped to keep herself up against him and the wall. She nearly whimpered when he pulled back just slightly before thrusting up again, pressing her back into the wall and drawing a short scream from her lips as her nails dug into his back. The tendons in his neck stood out with the tension inside his body, his arm muscles flexed as he held onto her legs tightly.

“God,” she gasped loudly, rocking her body against his and adding to the rhythm of his hips as he began to thrust in a rhythmic pattern. “Daryl,” She drawled out, drawing out his name to nearly four syllables. Daryl bit down on the flesh of her shoulder to hold back the noise that he was sure to make at the sound of his name coming from her lips, leaving teeth marks on the skin.

Her back slapped on the tiles behind her, filling the bathroom with the sound of her skin hitting against the wet surface, covering up her quiet gasps and the odd grunt that Daryl released as he thrust his hips up. Steam clouded the room, covering the mirrors and glass shower door. It was thick in the air, catching in the lungs of the lovers in its midst.

He could tell when she was getting close to her release, her nails digging down into his back shoulder again, the sounds that were coming from her throat getting loud and then louder, and finally the tightening of her inner muscles around him every time he pulled back before thrusting forward again. He could also tell that she was fighting it, waiting for him, trying to hold back until he was ready.

“Now, Jamie,” he bit out against her neck, sure that she heard him. She seized up a moment later, a chocked sound catching in her throat as she held back the scream that was fighting to come free as her orgasm crashed over her, every muscle in her body coiled up like a spring. Her body quaked with aftershocks as she slowly returned to herself, her eyes opening to the spray of the shower. Her heart was racing like never before inside her chest, jolts like electric shocks shooting through her limbs.

Daryl stilled as soon as he felt her tighten around him, slowly beginning to lower them toward the floor of the shower until she was sitting on his thighs, allowing her legs to relax. He pulled away from her shoulder, seeing the indentations of his teeth left behind and feeling a sense of pride that he had marked her, and looked into her eyes as she slowly regained her shattered composure.

“Hi, baby,” she finally said, lifting a trembling hand to his cheek. The water that streamed down his face transferred to her hand, sliding down her arm in a steady stream. She smiled to him, her cheeks flushed with pleasure as she continued to pant for breath. “You’re amazing.”

“I know.” Daryl smirked, causing her to laugh softly for a moment before she drew him down to place a gentle kiss to his lips. She could feel the hard length of him still inside of her and knew that he wouldn’t last long. She slowly let her back slide along the slippery wall until she was lying down on the floor of the shower, pulling Daryl down with her until he was laid out on top of her. The shower barely accommodated them lying down, but they managed by turning their bodies until they lay corner to opposite corner in the space.

Neither said another word as the rhythm began again, their lips pressing, tongue’s dancing and teeth gnashing together. Jamie’s hands pressed on the wall above her head to stop her body from sliding along the wet flooring, water raining down on them in a steady, warm current. Daryl wasn’t as gentle as he had been, slamming his hips against hers until she cried out at the feeling. He didn’t stop moving as she squirmed beneath him, her hands roaming about on his body when she wasn’t scratching them against the wall.

Every pant, arch, thrust and gasp was seared into the memories.

Jamie’s back arched off the flooring of the shower as her hands lifted to grip at her own hair, a drawn out moan vibrating her chest. Daryl groaned along with her, his hands gripping at her sides. Her thighs squeezed his hips as she bucked up against him, pushing his erect manhood as deep into her as she could. He thrust erratically a few more, short times before he fell still, holding himself deep inside of her as he came, warmth flooding her.

They remained lying on the floor of the shower, spent and shaking against one another. Daryl was the first to move, pulling himself from her and moving back. He admired the view of a wet, flushed and panting Jamie as she lay on her back, starting up at him with dazed eyes. He finally smirked down at her and helped her to gently get up, her muscles still twitching from exhaustion. They washed up half-heartedly, mostly just caressing each other in afterglow before they stumbled out into the office area where the couch and their things were, the door locked and giving them their personal time.

Daryl lay on his back on the couch as he watched Jamie get dressed for the night, pulling on his long sleeved shirt just as she had done the previous night. He inspected her bare back when it was turned toward him, seeing that the bruise was already beginning to lighten slightly but would still be very tender. When she turned to face him after brushing her hair through he opened his arms invitingly—since he was taking up the entire space of the couch—and raised an eyebrow to give a sexual insinuation.

She let out a breathy chuckle as she stepped up to the couch in nothing but his shirt, her undergarments hanging in the washroom to dry after she washed them quickly before she had jumped in the shower. “Just as insatiable.” She leaned a knee on the edge of the couch on the right side of his stomach, swinging her other leg around to straddle his stomach and sit back on his hips.

“Guess that’s why we’re so good together,” Daryl sniped back, sliding his hands up her thighs until the rested on her toned ass.

“Hope that’s not the only reason you’ve got.” She ran her nails down his bare chest slowly, watching the muscles jump at the feathery sensations and slowly grinning down at him. She couldn’t say anything further before she was forced to turn away and cover her mouth as she yawned, their reunion in the shower finally taking its toll on her.

“Time to sleep,” Daryl said, knowing that it was a mixture of the amount of alcohol she had consumed and the sex that had drained her so efficiently.

“No,” she said quietly, “I want to talk. Why don’t you tell me about what’s been going on since the outbreak. Anything big happen while you were travelling with Merle?” she asked him, changing her position so that she was lying on her stomach with her arms folding on his chest, resting her chin on them. Her legs were on either side of one of his, straddling his thigh.

“We moved around a lot, there’s not much to tell,” Daryl said in a bored tone as he looked up at the ceiling, one of his hands moving up from her ass to glide along where her tattoos would be. “Ran into a few groups that were after our weapons, killed hundreds of walkers….”Daryl trailed off as he looked like he was thinking, leaning his head against the pillow on the couch. “I shot a guy in the ass with an arrow couple of hours before you nearly shot me.”

“Hey! I thought you were a walker!” she protested, getting a smirk from her boyfriend when she played right into his hands. She glared at him for a moment before lowering her face into his chest to yawn again, his small amount of chest hair tickling her forehead. When she looked up again Daryl was giving her a look that told her she was going to sleep whether she liked it or not. She sighed softly and rose to her feet to go and turn off the lights in the room, hearing Daryl shuffle a bit on the couch just before she flicked the switch.

ᵻ

Everybody was crowded in the lunch room, forks scraping on plates and glasses clanking around. T-Dog was serving out eggs and there were plates of bacon around the table, as well as a pitcher of orange juice on the counter nearby with a fresh pot of coffee in the coffee maker. Glenn groaned in pain as he tried to force away the killer hangover that Daryl had basically forced him into, Carl finding complete amusement in the behaviour of the adults around him.

“Should we go wake up Daryl and Jamie?” Dale asked as he looked around at the faces that sat at the table, startled when there was a sudden laugh from T-Dog as he placed the pan of cooked powdered eggs aside.

“Trust me, they’re awake,” he said with a laugh in his tone still, taking his seat at the table. “My room was right next to theirs, they ain’t missin’ anything.” Glenn chocked on his orange juice in surprise as Jacqui, Andrea and Lori shared a laugh at the guy’s discomfort. The kids still looked confused, but decided not to question when their mother’s shook their heads in a silent ‘no’ at their questioning looks.

“Bet you had a wonderful sleep then,” Andrea said with a faint smile as she ripped off a piece of bacon to eat, getting a huff from T-Dog.

“It wasn’t last night that was the problem. This morning, though-”

“Not another word, T-Dog,” Jamie said as she stepped into the room, her hair wet from a recent shower and a flush to her skin. The girls in the room shared a look at the glow that seemed to surround the woman as she walked over to pick up two plates from the counter, cleaned from the night before, and moved over to begin getting food.

“Sleep well?” Lori asked, getting a raised eyebrow from the blonde with a knowing smirk on her lips.

“It was…exhilarating,” she finally answered, getting another round of high pitched laughs from the other women around the table. Daryl stepped into the room at that moment, his own hair still slightly damp. The kids took no notice, but the adults didn’t miss the fact that they wouldn’t both have wet hair if they had showered separately; and Daryl had shorter hair. It was still strange to see the subtle difference in Daryl as he stepped right up to Jamie, wrapping an arm around her good side and greeting her with a kiss before he moved aside to get himself a coffee.

“How’s the head Chinaman?” Daryl asked as he looked over to Glenn, getting a groan from the younger man that had everyone grinning in amusement.

“I’m Korean,” Glenn moaned in pain, placing the cold glass of orange juice to his forehead to try and alleviate the pain faster. Jamie laughed softly and shot Glenn a sympathetic look before handing Daryl his plate and moving over to sit at one of the two empty seats at the table, snatching a glass and the orange juice as she walked past.

“No coffee?” Andrea asked as she looked up in surprise, thinking that with the amount of wine that the other woman had taken in the night before, she’d be dying for a coffee.

“Love the smell, hate the taste,” Jamie answered, looking up to Andrea as she spoke. “There have been many people over the years that have tried to get me to like the stuff, nothing’s ever worked.” She poured herself the glass of orange juice as Daryl leaned back in his chair with his coffee in hand and couldn’t help but to be half tempted to make it Irish.

Andrea faked a look of astonishment as she shook her head, asking, “How do you wake yourself up in the morning?” Jay smiled as she took a gulp of her orange juice, swallowing before she could say anything. She pointed to her left, where Daryl sat giving her a look, and grinned.

“He works pretty well.”

The room erupted in noise as the adults caught on, laughing at the slightly uncomfortable and awkward look that came to Daryl’s face when there was so much attention on him. Jamie shrieked in protest when he stole a piece of her bacon in retaliation, leaning away when she tried to snatch it back and biting into the pork.

“You monster,” she glowered, smacking his thigh. Everyone noticed how Daryl seemed to get smacked a lot and briefly wondered if there was a reason behind it. Her smacks were never hard enough to hurt but they knew that she did slap him when a situation that called upon it arose. Such as him trying to kill a man or saying something embarrassingly vulgar to her that left her flushed and in denial.

Dale noticed the change between the two. They were no longer two people that had lost one another, but two lovers that had finally reunited. Last night had been the night that they needed, the moment that they could greet one another properly. He smiled faintly at the look on Daryl’s face as he watched Jamie smile, the look of a protective, content man that was loved and in love. He tried to mask it, and he did a good job most of the time, but there were moments when he guard slipped and his feelings were exposed on his face.

 

_Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles but fans a fire._


	15. Pulse, Cold, Arise

The large screen at the far side of the room that Jenner led them to lit up, beginning a play of what Jenner had called the TS-19, the group crowding around the room as they watched. Jamie sat on the edge of one of the chairs with her elbows leaned forward on her knees with Daryl standing beside her, his hand on the back of the chair. Her hands came up before her lips, placed together in a prayer position.

“Is that a brain?” Carl asked curiously, looking over to Jenner. The screen did indeed hold the image of a human, translucent except for the vital nerves, veins and organs inside, from the shoulders up. The group looked up at the x-ray looking image, trying to tell what it was that he was about to show them.

“An extraordinary one,” Jenner answered honestly, giving Carl a faint smile. “Not that it matters in the end,” he added on, speaking to everyone else as he looked back up to the main screen. Jamie looked up at the screen as it zoomed in, turning the view around until they were looking at the brain from the side, and felt a sense of being very small.

“Enhanced internal view,” The computerized female voice said, echoing through the room.

“Oh, wow,” she sighed out, watching as the brain was enhanced until it was showing a collection of dancing lights along connected cords. It was a beautifully strange sight, something that a person would find intriguing and wondered what it was that he or she were looking at. She was surprised that she was actually looking at a human brain before her, not a digital light show.

“What are those lights?” Shane asked from the other side of the room, his voice carrying in the silent space. Daryl looked over at the man for a moment before he glanced down at the back of Jamie’s head, seeing that she was completely transfixed with what was on the screen before her. Her blonde hair was loose around her shoulders and down her back, having dried through breakfast to fall into the natural wave that she complained so much about.

“It’s a person’s life; experiences, memories. It’s everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, in all those ripples of light, is you.” Daryl reached his hand forward to grip Jamie’s shoulder with a firm but gentle grasp, her own hand rising up to clasp overtop of his without looking away from the screen. “The thing that makes you unique and human,” Jenner explained, looking around at all of the people throughout the room. Unique, indeed.

His eyes lingered for the second time at the odd couple that sat off to the right of the room, seeing their intertwined fingers atop her right shoulder. They didn’t look at one another, they didn’t say a word, but they physically showed that they were there. He turned to look back at the screen, his own heart clenching in his chest as he watched those ripples of light; of life.

“You don’t make sense, ever,” Daryl said from behind Jamie, glancing at the doctor.

“Those are synapses,” he clarified, “Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth, to the moment of death.” Jay’s hand tightened on top of Daryl’s at the man’s words, Daryl’s own muscles tensing slightly at the word.

“Death?” Rick asked, stepping forward toward Jenner, still looking at the screen. “That’s what this is? A visual?

“Yes,” Jenner mumbled back, his eyes locked on the human brain that they were watching, all of the lights flashing about. “Or rather, the playback of the visual.”

“This person died?” Andrea asked, her eyes filled with pain. She was clearly still thinking of her sister as she watched the lights of life inside the human brain, thinking of Amy’s lose life. “Who?”

“Test subject 19,” Jenner answered automatically. “Someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to have us record the process.” Jamie’s eyes fell closed as she tried not to imagine the person that had been recorded, slowly dying in the painful way that Jim had been as they recoded it. It must have been unbearable. Not only for the subject, but for the ones who had to watch. “Vi, scan forward to the first event!”

“Scanning to first event.”

Daryl and Jamie both watched, their faces drawn into frowns, as the screen zoomed out to look at the side of the person’s head again, showing the brain still. The lights around the center of the brain began to fade away, turning black inside the soft tissue. The person was lying still, but they knew that it wasn’t going to be that way for long. Unless they were unconscious throughout the process, they would move around at the pain and discomfort at least slightly.

“What is that?” Glenn asked this time, voicing the same question that was going through everyone’s minds.

“They’re dying,” Jamie whispered softly, not even sure if anyone heard her. If they had, no one reacted to it.

“It invades the brain like meningitis,” Jenner was saying, pointing up at the screen as he spoke. He almost looked like a professor, giving a lecture on some type of human sickness. The sight of the dying brain tugged on all of their hearts, clutching at their chests until it was almost hard to breathe. Daryl didn’t look effected by the sight, but all that he could think of was that this could be what it could be like for Jamie, this could be what it could be like for him. The subject on the screen was beginning to gasp for air, shifting around slightly as they died. “The brain goes into shut down, then the major organs, then death.”

The brain went black, all light moving about inside ceasing.

Jamie leaned back in the chair that she was in, placing a hand over her mouth as her eyes stung. She fought the tears hard, taking in a deep breath to calm herself down. Daryl squeezed her shoulder in a sign of comfort, the only thing that he could offer, but never looked away from the screen. She wiped at her eyes to remove the building tears, letting out a long exhale that trembled at the end.

“Everything that you ever were or ever will be…gone.”

Jamie pulled herself up from the chair that she was in, closing her eyes a moment and turning away from the others. Her back throbbed slightly at the faint soreness from leaning back against the chair, but it wasn’t enough that she felt she needed to take anything for it. The wine had allowed to her sleep soundly the night before, only waking in the morning when Daryl began to pock and prod her to get her up so he could go to the bathroom. She had fallen asleep lying atop him and it was comfortable for her, but she was pressing her hip against his bladder.

Daryl’s hands grasped the back of her pants and tugged her toward him when she went to walk away, pressing a discrete but meaningful kiss against her temple. She let out a breath of air and tried to keep herself in check. She could hear Jenner and the others talking behind her, Daryl’s cheek against one of her ears muffled the voices. “That’ll never happen to you, Babe.”

She nodded her head in understanding, but the unsettling feeling in her gut made it hard to truly believe. She knew that Daryl would do everything in his power to make sure that no walkers got close to either of them, but there was still only so much that one man could do. She could take care of herself perfectly fine, but there was still that slight chance that something would go wrong.

“Scan to the second event,” Jenner called out, drawing the couple’s attention back toward the main screen.

“Scanning to second event.”

Jamie stepped up to one of the work stations, leaning her hips against the tabletop as her arms raised up to the top shelf-like surface that was above the computer screens. She felt Daryl’s hands slide down into the sides of her pants, his fingers pressing down in soothing circles. His chest pressed against her back, his breath ghosting her neck. She took a deep breath to push down her body’s reaction to his touch and close proximity, trying not to think on the fact that his fingers were in her pants.

“The resurrection times vary wildly,” Jenner explained, crossing his arms over his chest and facing the screen. “I have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds.”

Jamie looked over to where Jenner was standing, so concentrated on the screen. There was something about this subject that changed his behaviour. He never really had acted normally around them, but he was showing a type of connection as he spoke of this one person. He would probably know the time no matter who it was, but the way that he told them the resurrection time spoke of hidden emotions.

“Whoa,” Daryl mumbled against her hair as a faint red light began to glimmer in the center of the brain, near the base. The sparking lights were not quite like the ripples that they had seen before, not only because they were red and not blueish white but because they were faint and didn’t reach the entire brain.

“It restarts the brain?” Lori asked in shock, looking over to Jenner.

“No,” He denied, finally turning away from the screen to look back at Lori. “Just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving.”

“But they’re not alive?” Rick asked. Jay could understand how it was hard for him to think that someone who was actually living was killing all of those people, eating them. Also, all of the walkers that they had killed until that point were alive? If didn’t restart the whole brain, but were they still alive because at least one part of it was?

“You tell me.”

“It’s nothing like before, most of that brain is dark.”

“Dark, lifeless, dead,” Jenner said, agreeing. “The frontal cortex—the human part—that doesn’t come back. The ‘you’ part.” The person on the screen began to move around slightly, their mouth opening as they began to draw their first breaths. Turning from side to side to side, they squirmed on whatever surface they had been laid on, shifting about as it awoke. “Just a…shell. Driven by mindless instinct.” Something appeared at the top of the screen, bright in the x-ray view that they had. A light flashed and a path was driven through the head of the person, straight through from the forehead to the base of the skull.

Jamie jumped as her heart felt as though it stopped for a moment.

“What was that?” Carol asked in surprise, not expecting the sudden image.

“He shot his patient in the head,” Andrea rasped out, sounding tired; defeated. “Didn’t you?” However, Jenner didn’t answer, but only ordered the computers to power down. The room darkened slightly as several sources of light turned black, shutting off the computers all around the room as well as the large image of the dead walker. “You have no idea what it is, do you?”

All eyes were on Jenner, some holding interest and others nothing but despair. Andrea’s held accusation.

“It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal,” Jenner listed off, proving to them all that even with the fact that he’d been working on something, there was nothing more that he could show or tell them about what had ended the world.

“Or the wrath of God?” Jacqui asked, nearly drawing a laugh from Jamie’s throat. She had never been a strong believer in the Almighty Lord, but now she was firmly convinced that there was no God. And if there was, he had a fucking twisted sense of humour.

“There are others, right? Other facilities?”

When Jenner told them that the epidemic had been worldwide, in not so many words, Jamie assumed that Andrea finally cracked. The way that the woman just seemed to wilt and shake her head in disbelief was concerning. The others were all unsettled to, but it wasn’t like it was unexpected. What were the chances of it only being where they were, that it was confined to their country and not the whole globe? It was a hard blow to their hope, knowing for sure that the rest of the world was down as well, but it wasn’t a total surprise.

“Man, I’m gonna get shit faced drunk,” Daryl said as he leaned his head on her shoulder, “Again.”

“Doctor Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I’d hate to ask one more question, but,” Dale started, stepping around through the tables and stations with his eyes fixed on the far wall. “That clock. It’s counting down.” Jamie and Daryl both turned their attention toward the clock that Dale had pointed to, the large, bright red numbers reading 1:00:01, 1:00:00, 0:59:59. “What happens at zero?”

“The,” Jenner starting, looking off as though he were trying to think of a lie, “Basement generators they run out of fuel.” He blurted out in one fast sentence, leaving the group momentarily stunned. The intelligent Doctor Jenner was getting nervous? If that wasn’t a cause to worry, Jamie didn’t entirely want to find out what was.

Rick asked, “And then?” But Jenner didn’t pay him any attention and began to walk off, leaving the group behind. “Vi, what happens when the power runs out?” Rick called out, looking around as he waited for the mechanical voice.

“When the power runs out,” The computerized female voice repeated, “Facility wide decontamination will occur.”

“That shit don’t sound too good,” Jamie said loud enough for everyone to hear, looking at the ceiling in a type of sarcastic prayer. “Fuck,” she said much more quietly, only Daryl able to understand her but the others were able to comprehend when she turned sharply away from them, her hands rising to her hair.

No one lingered long, breaking off to their own groups. Most of the guys went down toward the generators to see what they could do or if they could figure out what was going to happen at zero; what was going to happen to them at zero. The women took themselves and the children to their rooms, Dale escorting an emotionally cracked Andrea back toward her room. Jamie leaned forward to hit her head on the top of one of the work stations once everyone else had left, only Daryl standing behind her.

“Come on, none of that,” he said as he helped her straighten again, the hit on the table not even hard enough to redden the skin. She looked more irritated the depressed, unlike all of the others, and he was glad that he didn’t need to deal with an emotionally traumatized Jamie—he had had to do that when her parents died, it was bad enough then and he didn’t care for a refresher.

Jamie shrieked faintly in surprise when he knelt down and slipped an arm between her legs, holding her onto his shoulder as he kept a hold on one of her thighs so she didn’t slip. She cussed him out at first, breathless from the sudden change in position. She didn’t demand to be put down, already knowing that he would simply ignore her or do something to shut her up. Probably slap her on the ass if she knew him as well as she said she did.

“Bastard,” she growled out as he started down the hallway that held all of the rooms they occupied, no one else standing around. Several doors were open but empty, belonging to the men that had gone down to the basement. He made sure not to knock her against the doorframe as he stepped into their room, closing and locking the door behind them, before he threw Jamie down onto the couch, one of her legs draping over the back.

She gasped at the sudden change in position, her hair throw up over her head, draping across the armrest of the three seated couch. She looked bewildered for a moment before her eyes slanted over to Daryl as he picked up the bottle of alcohol that he had brought with them to their room. She watched his throat as he took deep swallows of the amber liquid before he placed the bottle on the table in front of the couch, pressed a knee on the edge of the far cushion before he leaned his body over hers, the strong smell of the drink on his breath.

“You really are gonna get shit faced drunk?” she asked softly, looking into his blue eyes. They appeared darker than normal, but she wasn’t sure if that was because his pupils seemed larger or the lighting in the room played with the colour.

“You could say that,” he growled back, leaning down to catch her lips as he nipped sharply on the delicate skin. Her breath hitched at the feel, tasting the alcohol on his tongue as it swiped the top of her mouth. Her hands gripped at his shirt and pulled him closer to her, tugging him down until they were pressed flush together.

Even with their eyes closed, they could both tell when the room went pitch black around them.

Daryl pulled back, looking around. There was still light coming into their room from under the door to the hallway, but all of their lights had completely gone out. “The fuck?” he muttered to himself as he got to his feet, hearing Jamie quickly do the same. Jamie marched right to the door and unlocked it, pulling it open and peaking her head out. Others were all doing the same, glancing about.

“Why’s the air off?” Lori asked, drawing Jamie’s attention toward the end of the hall that Jenner was walking from. “And the lighting?”

“What’s going on?” Daryl asked as he leaned around Jamie, wrapping on arm around her shoulders with the other holding the bottle of whisky again. “Why’d everything turn off?” he asked, looking down toward where Andrea and Dale were standing in their doorways. Jenner snatched the bottle from his hand as he was passing, getting Daryl’s full attention.

“Energy use is being prioritized.”

They all followed after Jenner as he made his way toward the work area again, taking large gulps from the bottle that he had taken from Daryl. Jamie jogged to keep up with her boyfriend when he ran after Jenner, demanding to know what was going on. His accent had thickened in his angered and inebriated state. Her heart rate was beginning to pick up as she followed in a fast stride after Daryl and Jenner, the others bringing up the end with a march.


	16. It's In the Air

Shane and T-Dog had to push Daryl back as he attempted to attack Jenner, pushing him back and out of the way. It was fairly obvious that most in the room wanted to do the exact same thing, but Daryl was just violent enough to actually try it. Jamie was screaming at the top of her lungs as she kicked at the heavy metal door that had sealed them in the room, Rick’s arms looping under hers to keep a strong hold on her and pulling her back. Her side and back throbbed as they were jarred with every kick, but she didn’t much care at that point.

She struggled to escape his hold but he pulled her back until he had reached the work stations and handed her over to the others, hoping that she would be able to calm herself down to the point that she wasn’t attempting to break her own foot by kicking at a door uselessly. Rick marched up to Jenner to demand that he release them, but the man denied at all turns.

Jamie fell to lean against one of the desks, her breathing heavy and her body tense and trembling. She didn’t know if she’d be able to control her temper if she got near Jenner, she didn’t know if she’s be able to stop herself from chocking the life out of him. Her hands gripped at her hair as she fought against thinking about wrapping them around the man’s neck.

“What happens in twenty eight minutes?” Rick asked in a low, threatening voice, stepping right up into Jenner’s space. Jamie pulled herself up to her full height, beginning to pace. Her body was shaking too much to stand still. Jenner ignored Rick’s question, facing one of the computers instead. “What happens in twenty eight minutes?” he demanded in a much louder tone, slamming one hand down on the desk while the other reached for Jenner.

“Do you know what this place is?” Jenner demanded, his voice rising to a yell as he faced off against the younger man. “We protected the public from _very nasty stuff!”_ he yelled into Shane’s face, stepping back only to take a breath. “Weaponized smallpox’s, Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don’t want getting out! _Ever_!”

Pacing like caged animals, Jamie and Daryl made a perfect pair as they watched Jenner like hawks scoping their prey. They didn’t stop moving once, making a half circle each on either side of the man in copied habits. Daryl had always had a bad habit of pacing, something that Jamie had picked up on throughout the years that they had been friends; she had always watched people carefully, especially when she was involved and Daryl had learned to do much the same. They had become the perfect pair of predators within the time that they had known each other.

“In the event of a power failure in a terrorist attack, for example,” Jenner continued much more calmly, resuming his seat before the computer. “HIT’s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out.”

“HIT’s?”

“Vi, define.”

“ _HIT’s, high impulse thermobaric explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition that produces a wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum pressure affect ignites the oxygen between five thousand and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage is desired.”_

Jamie finally froze when Vi was speaking, her eyes widening. She leaned against the table nearest to her as her face went pale white, looking as sickly as a dying woman. Her body was still shaking, trembling from adrenaline, fear and _understanding._ When the female voice finally stopped, she felt as though she was going to collapse right there. Everyone looked shocked, numb and some even very confused.

“It lights the air on fire?” she demanded in a hoarse voice, trembling like the rest of her. Jenner looked over to her, no emotion in his eyes. _He_ was a shell. Just like those things that they had been running from. He didn’t care about them; he was giving up just like his coworkers had.

“No pain,” he said simply. “An end to sorrow, grief…regret.” He looked away from her eyes, the accusing hazel that held more hatred and disgust than he had ever seen in one person before. She had seemed so nice, so innocent to him when he first saw her. Now, her eyes were haunting; seared into his memory as the one person that would hate him from this moment until they had died. “Everything.”

The room was held frozen, seemingly stilled for minutes in time even as the clock continued to count down. Even then, however, their minds were racing. They soon began to move around in search of an exit, moving toward the heavy metal door that had closed them in. Rick, Daryl and Glenn tried to find some kind of way that they could override the locks that were used to close them in, but it seemed that only Jenner could get them out using his key card and code.

Daryl finally growled out in rage as his anger got the better of him and he chucked the bottle he had been holding against the wall as hard as he could, whipping around to face Jenner and pointing back at the door as he yelled out.

“Open the damn door!”

Shoving Shane on the arm to draw his attention, Jamie jogged over to where there were emergency cases in case of a fire near the other locked doors. He quickly caught on to her thought process and ran after her, stepping to the other side of the door as her to get the second axe. Jamie kicked the glass in to preserve her skin, drawing back to remove the axe rom his casing. Shane was able to use his elbow with ease, knowing exactly what to do. He quickly ran around with the object in his hand until he could get up the path to the door, Jamie taking another route around while she remained on the ground floor and approached the ramp.

“Daryl!” she yelled, drawing his attention. She chucked the axe up to him, the stronger of the two catching it fluently before he ran back to the door to help Shane, the metal end of the axes slamming down on the door. Sparks flew at the contact, the sound of metal on metal screaming through the room. The men grunted with every hit, reaching every member of their group that were littered about the room. The children were beginning to panic and cry, angering and frightening the parents.

Jamie leaned her hands on the ramp as she watched the two men try and make more than just scratches and dents in the door, her heart dropping as she watched the same result each time. The scratches could be considered deep, but with how thick that door was, there was no way they would be able to get out. It was a pointless effort, but no one wanted to believe it. Shane stepped back after a while, glaring at the offending obstacle before he moved over to speak with Rick.

“Nothing?” Jamie asked in despair, her hands clutching at the edge of the ramp. She moved around to get onto the platform, meeting up with Daryl as he was making his way down as well, breathing heavily and looking as deadly as a murderer with the axe still in his hand. He was starting to perspire heavily with the combination of no air circulation, swinging the axe at the door and the paranoia of being locked inside that room.

“That door was designed to withstand a rocket launcher,” Jenner said as soon as he heard Shane’s status report to Rick.

“But your head ain’t!” Daryl yelled as he raised the axe up again, rushing toward Jenner. Dale, Rick and Jamie all got a hold of him, T-Dog coming up from behind to take the axe from his hand before he could hurt someone else unintentionally or get the idea to go at Jenner for a third him.

“Back up!” Rick yelled as he pushed Daryl backward, away from the insane doctor. Jamie continued to pull him until he was backed to the railing of the work station, her hands on his chest as she kept him where he was. He never looked away from Jenner, the murderous intent lingering in his eyes, as he breathed heavily. Jamie knew that if he was going to follow through with killing Jenner then he would use the knife that was strapped to his belt, or even steal the one in the holster on her thigh.

“Look at me,” Jamie ordered, taking Daryl’s face in her hand and forced him to stop looking over her shoulder, getting into the view path of Jenner so that she could distract him at least enough to calm him down a bit. “Look at me, Daryl.” His blue eyes landed on her face after a moment more of resistance, his blue eyes clashing with her golden hazel ones. “What was it that you told me when I got sick and scared because I had to go to the hospital?” she asked softly, stroking his cheeks before sliding them down to his neck.

He didn’t say anything at first, just breathed heavily through his nose. “Angels can’t die,” he finally mumbled in response, the hot breath fanning over her face. She smiled softly when he finally spoke and lifted her hands to smooth his hair, damp with sweat. Leaning forward, Jamie pressed her forehead against his for a moment, their lips less than an inch apart.

“Guardian Angels can’t, either,” she whispered before pressing a kiss to his lips, only briefly but enough to bring him back to himself.

“There is no hope,” Jenner said loudly from behind them, drawing Daryl’s attention again. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her against his chest for a moment as he pressed a hard kiss to her forehead, a silent acceptance to her terms. Don’t kill anyone. “There never was-”

“There’s always hope,” Rick interrupted, pacing around before his friends and family, his anger toward Jenner evident in his tense posture and harsh stride. “Maybe it won’t be you, maybe not here but somebody, _somewhere._ ”

“What part of everything’s gone do you not understand?” Andrea asked suddenly, the crossness in her voice drawing Jamie forward. To just drop all hope as she had, to give up and try to get everyone else to was just something that she couldn’t take. It was bad enough that Jenner was doing it, but he was a complete stranger to them. When one from the group began to shut down and lose that will to live, the fight to survive, it could tear them apart. It would have more of an impact than that of a stranger, a man who they didn’t know and didn’t understand.

“Listen to your friend, she gets it-”

“You shut up!” Jamie yelled as she marched over, pointing threateningly at Jenner as she passed him. “And _you_ ,” she shouted, pointing down at Andrea, “What the hell is wrong with you? You’re seriously going to just give up after everything. You’ve fought so hard to stay alive until now and you’re just going to let yourself die?”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Andrea said in a tight voice, glaring up at the other woman.

“That’s not true!” Jamie yelled, looking over at Jenner as well. “We can fight! We _will_ fight. _I_ won’t roll over and wait until the clock runs out, I never have before and I am not going to start that now. As long as we’re alive there’s a chance, a reason to go on.” She looked back down at Andrea’s blank face, knowing the exact reason behind her depression. “Amy’s dead and gone, I know that. We’ve all lost people that we love in this; friends, family. You don’t see us curling up on the floor and throwing our lives away-”

“What do you know?” She hissed out with a darkness in her voice that it was nearly frightening. “ You still have Daryl, he’s not dead!”

“No, but there was a time when I didn’t know that,” Jamie hissed out. “You can’t go searching for Amy, you can’t use that as a reason to live like I did, but there is _always_ a reason. Live to preserve her memory, live on for her because she can’t!”

“Shut up!” Andrea yelled, tears beginning to collect in her eyes. Jamie crouched down before Andrea, her eyes softening as she looked at the torn apart woman before her. Andrea was younger than she was, that much was easy to tell. But it wasn’t by much; she just seemed very young because she’d clearly been sheltered before the epidemic.

When Jamie spoke again, her voice had softened, “It’s true that I still have Daryl, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to say ‘alright, it’s okay to die now.’ I don’t need to fight to live so that I can find him, but I need to fight so that I _stay_ with him.” Andrea opened her mouth to speak but seemed to think twice about it and instead looked off to the side, at the floor by Lori’s feet. There was a brief silence in the room as everyone looked anywhere but Jamie and Andrea, feeling as though they were intruding on something private.

“This isn’t right,” Carol finally gasped out, tears coursing down her cheeks. “You can’t just keep us here.”

“One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain,” Jenner tried to reason, leaning forward in his chair so that he could look at Carol and try to get her attention. Jamie stepped over and shoved his shoulder, keeping him back. Rick moved up encase she lost her temper, but she didn’t touch the man further and stepped away again, her entire body stiff.

“My daughter doesn’t deserve to die like this!” Carol yelled over to him, pulling at everyone’s hearts at the broken sound of her voice. She was desperate. She handed Sophia over to Dale, standing up herself and moving away from the man. Jamie placed an arm over Carol’s shoulders, offering what comfort and reassurance that she could. It’s seemed pointless, but she wanted to help the distraught woman.

“Wouldn’t it be kinder? More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?”

“ _Don’t_ make me hurt you,” Jamie hissed out as she gently moved Carol away from the man, stepping back up so that she stood between the tearful mother and the monster that Jenner had become. His logic could be sound for some people, but to take someone’s choice of life wasn’t right in any way.

The sharp, familiar sound of a shotgun loading drew all attention backward, to where Shane was marching back up toward Jenner, the black shotgun that he had been carrying with him all along in his hand. He looked ready to kill, out for blood. It was a side of him that they hadn't seen, a deadly side that only came out in a fight for survival. Instinctual.

“Hey, Shane!” Rick yelled, stepping in front of the man to stop him. Jamie stepped back, out of the war path and leaned against one of the stations as Shane bowled past Rick and marched right up into Jenner’s face. The muzzle of the gun never wavered away from Jenner as Shane held his ground.

“Open that door,” Shane said in a low voice, “Or I will blow your head off. Do you hear me!” He looked like a mad man, holding the shotgun up to Jenner’s face, his eyes wide and wild. Daryl stepped up to Jamie and pulled her back, passing Lori and Carl, Dale and T-Dog. She stumbled back into his chest as he hold onto her protectively, keeping her as far from the line of fire as he could without stepping out of the immediate area.

“It won’t be so painless to get your head blow off,” Jamie said evenly, her arm rising up to wrap around Daryl’s neck, holding him to her. If they truly were going to die, she’d die with him. Daryl had an eye on Shane and Jenner, a darkness inside of him hoping that Shane pulled the trigger, that the bastard died for all he’d done.

When Shane yelled out in a war cry, they all thought that it was over; that he was going to fire. Instead, he turned the gun away from Jenner and began to shoot the shit out of a couple of computers passed Jenner’s head. Jamie jumped in surprise at the loud shots, Daryl’s arm tightening around her waist for a moment. People around the room ducked in instinct, half expecting Shane to begin firing off in random directions. It seemed, however, that he had only been venting and opted to destroy a couple of computers.

Rick tried to take the gun from him, ending up with Shane firing upward and taking out one of the lights. Jamie and Daryl both ducked as sparks flew everywhere for a moment, the rest of the people in the room doing the same. Rick was able to remove the gun from Shane’s hands and cracked him over the head with the butt of the gun, taking him to the ground. He raised the gun in preparation of having to swing again, but Shane was downed and wasn’t trying to attack Rick.

“You done now? Are you done?”

“Yea,” Shane snapped, looking up at his best friend, “I guess we all are.”

“Not yet,” Jamie called over, needing to try and keep the hope inside of everyone. They could _not_ afford to just let everything go. She looked over to Daryl, seeing that he was still breathing fairly heavily. She met his eyes for a moment, nodding his head. _Not yet._

“I think you’re lying,” Rick accused suddenly, taking everyone in the room by surprise. That was not one that they had expected. Jamie looked over to Rick at the same time Daryl did, watching him turn to face the equally confused doctor. “You’re lying about ‘no hope’. If that were true, you would have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn’t.”

“You didn’t give up,” Jamie said softly, drawing Rick’s attention for a moment. He could clearly remember the sight of the husband and his wife back at the house they had stopped at to look for fuel and found the horse that they had ridden to Atlanta on. _GOD FORGIVE US._

“It doesn’t matter,” Jenner tried to deflect, bringing Rick’s gaze back to him.

“It does matter, it always matters. You stayed when others ran, why?”

“Not because I wanted to,” Jenner glowered back, looking Rick straight in the eye. “I made a promise, to her.” He pointed up at the screen, where they had been watching the playback of subject 19. “My wife.”

_“You don’t seem like the marrying kind,” Jamie said as she leaned back against the headboard of the hotel room that she was in, grinning slightly as she held the phone to her ear and lowered the volume on the television so that she could properly hear Daryl over the phone._

The sound of scraping metal made Jamie look back to where Daryl was once again throwing the axe against the door, putting all of the force that he could in each swing, adding his body weight into it. She turned to face him completely and stepped forward until she was standing at the base of the ramp, watching as he swung again, and again, and again. Her hand touched the cold metal railing that surrounded the space, feeling distant.

_“I’ll take you to Vegas someday, prove it to ya, I ain’t having some fancy ass weddin’,” Daryl’s voice said through the phone, accepting the challenge that she did not even know that she had set. Jamie couldn’t help but laugh as she tipped her head back against the cool wall of the room, not quite knowing how to take his words. To heart? As amusement?_

Daryl stopped swinging to take a moment to breathe, turning around to look over at the group. He saw Jamie standing at the base of the ramp, a small smile on her lips. He knew that look; she was having another one of those nostalgic moments. She was looking toward the ramp, but he knew that she had been watching as he swung at the door, trying fruitlessly to break open the metal blocking their escape. He looked away and turned to the door again, preparing another swing.

_“Ha! Mrs. Jamie Knight Dixon. Jamie Dixon; you know, it kind of has a nice ring to it. Dontcha think?” Jamie teased into the phone, leaning forward when her shoulder blades began to grow uncomfortable against the headboard. “Does this mean we’re engaged?”_

“Come on!” Daryl yelled, drawing Jamie back to herself. The door had opened, Daryl standing in front of it as he held his arm out toward her. She didn’t hesitate a second more and ran up to him, letting him place a hand on her back and guide her over the threshold as the others raced behind them. Jamie turned back to make sure that everyone was coming before she let Daryl take her hand and pull her down the hall. She could see Lori and Carol pulling their children along behind them, calling after the others that weren’t moving quite yet.

“Rick, come on!” Jamie screamed, her voice echoing off the walls of the hallway. He’d saved her life, she’d be damned if she let him die in this place.

Jamie could hear when Jacqui told everyone she’d be staying, Dale yelling at them to run. The group stayed frozen in the hall for only a short while longer before they took off for dear life. Jamie slipped her hand into Daryl’s as they ran, feeling his long fingers close around hers as he tugged her forward, guiding her out.

_She could hear Daryl laugh deeply in her ear, imagining him leaning against the door of his truck as he looked at the forest that surrounded his and Merle’s place. He never spoke inside since Merle would always cut in on their conversations and ruin the time that had to talk whenever Jamie had to leave town for work. “’Spose this means I’ve gotta call you my fiancé now, don’t it?”_


	17. Blackened

Even though they had gotten through one barrier, they still needed to find a way out of the building. The doors would not open when T-Dog tried the code, and there was no way that they could break through them. Shane and Daryl began swinging at the windows but it had nearly the same effect as when Daryl had been trying to break open the door. All it did was scratch the glass. T-Dog tried next with a chair, once more just resulting with scratched windows.

“What the fuck is that made out of?” Jamie asked aloud, not really excepting anyone to answer.

“Dog, get down! Get down!” Shane yelled as he walked up with a freshly loaded shotgun, shooting at the glass where the most marks had been made. More dents were placed in it, but it still didn’t shatter. Jamie tried to think about anything that could break the glass, anything that they might have with them. The doors downstairs could withstand a rocket launcher, but the windows couldn’t be quiet that strong. At the very least they’d need _something_ that had an explosive effect.

She jolted when she remembered.

“ _Rick!”_ she screamed, startling everyone in the room as she whirled around to face him. “The grenade!” she yelled, watching as he whipped around to face her after watching Shane shoot at the glass. “When we were in the tank, you picked up a grenade on the shelf. _Please_ tell me you still have that grenade!” she begged loudly.

Realization dawned in his eyes and his hands moved to his pockets as he felt around for the grenade that clearly _wasn’t_ there.

“Wait,” Carol called, rushing over with her bag in hand. “The first night at camp, when I washed your uniform.” she pulled her hands form the bag to show the circular grenade, pin still intact. “I found this in your pocket.”

“Holy shit, you actually kept it,” Jamie said in a rush of relief, leaning over as she placed her hands on her knees. Rick looked at the grenade for a moment before he took it from her hand, moving over to the window.

“Look out!” he yelled, the group all rushing over to the stairs so that they were away from the blast. Daryl pulled Jamie over to the stairs quickly, ducking down and tugging her against his chest. She took hold of the arms wrapped around her chest and ducked her head forward. The silence of the room allowed them all to hear when Rick pulled the pin and released the clasp, dropping the grenade at the base of the window and rushing over to them as he chanted “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.”

The blast pushed Daryl more firmly against Jamie’s back, Rick’s form flying past them and landing just before the stairs. The sound that everyone was waiting for came, though. They could all hear when the glass from the shattered window fell to the ground, breaking into millions of pieces.

“Everybody _out!”_ Jamie yelled as she rushed over to force Rick back to his feet, rushing over to their things and collecting her gun and bag from the pile they had left. Everyone else quickly did the same, their boots sliding on the polished floors. They all jumped out the window frame, ready for the walkers that they knew were going to be there.

Daryl passed her his crossbow as they were crossing the front yard, the axe in his hand all the weapon that he’d need. Jamie only paused once to take aim with the weapon and fire, taking out a man that was hobbling his way toward them at surprising speed. She made sure to stoop down and rip the arrow from the man’s head as she was running passed him, looking back in time to see Daryl swing the axe and take another walkers head clean off.

“Get to the truck!” he yelled up at her, throwing her the keys. She caught them in the hand that was holding the bloody arrow, running faster toward the truck. The others piled into their own vehicles, Rick and his family climbing into the RV since Dale had stayed behind. Luckily, he left the keys in the ignition most of the time.

Jamie ripped around the front of Daryl’s truck and threw open the driver’s door, chucking the crossbow and arrow into the back, before she fumbled to get the keys into the ignition. Daryl appeared at the driver’s door pushing against her harshly to slide her across the seats before he jumped in, slamming the door closed. He threw himself down over top of her, knocking the air from her lungs at the force, and pressed her hard into the seat. She could feel his breathing hot on her neck, his hands gripping at her shoulders with his arms wrapped around her.

With a tremendous explosion that sounded like thunder a thousand times too close, the trucks were shaken violently for one second, a wave of air that felt as hot as fire itself rushing through the open windows of Daryl’s truck. The ground shook with an artificial Earthquake as the entirety of the CDC building crumbled to the ground, huge chunks of stone and concrete falling like rain to the ground below.

When the shaking began to slow down, Daryl lifted up to look out the front windshield of the truck, to where the CDC once stood. A flaming pile of rock was all that was left behind, lighting the area with the blaze. Jamie was left gasping on the seat, her hands rising to her face as she tried to stop her trembling. She soon pulled herself up as well, looking out at the flames. She quickly looked back to Daryl, seeing that he was looking at her as well.

Her hands reached for him at the same time that he lunged for her, her hands gripping at his hair as he pressed her down into the seat again. Their lips met in a desperate kiss, a flurry of movement and emotion. Jamie could feel tears of relief burning at her eyes, the horrible tension that had been building in her stomach for an hour finally releasing.

“I love you,” she gasped out as she pulled back from the kiss, soothing her hands across his sweat slicked face. “Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you,” she chanted against his skin, feeling the press of his lips as he continued to kiss her. The sounds of the other trucks starting were masked slightly by the rolling flames and falling rubble of the CDC, but they were loud enough that Daryl knew they needed to get moving. He pulled back from Jamie with on last kiss, picking the keys up from where they had fallen to the floor of the truck.

His hands were far more steady than hers had been as he started the truck, waiting for the others to pull away before he could. He lifted his arm up and looked over at Jamie, immediately feeling her press into his side as she wrapped her arms around his torso, refusing to release him. They quickly made a U-turn, leaving the city that they had driven so far to get to. Jamie watched as the trucks drove before them, the warmth of Daryl’s body a welcome feeling even in the heat of the sun and fire.

It’s strange; the world had come to an end and they still abided to the laws of the road, staying in the right hand lane.

**ᵻ**

They found a place on the outskirts of Atlanta where there were clusters of cars and trucks that they could siphon fuel from, an abandoned town in the woods. They decided it would be best to leave behind some of the vehicles, since there was no point in driving so many and they were just using up needed fuel. In the end, they were left with the RV, one truck and a motorcycle. They moved their things around and left behind what they could, such as the things of Jacqui that couldn’t assist them in the end.

“Daryl and T-Dog are going to siphon more fuel, Jamie can you go with Lori and Carl to help trade some of the things from the other trucks?” Rick asked as he looked over to the blonde. She nodded her head immediately and moved over to where Lori and her son were unloading the large van, bringing most over to the truck since that one wasn’t holding as many people.

“Here, you’re strong, carry this for me,” Lori said as soon as Jamie was beside her, passing her a box of canned goods and other packaged foods that could be saved for a while. Jamie grunted slightly at the weight, nodding to Lori once she had a hold of it so that the brunette could get back to work. “You alright with that?”

“Yea, works as a great muscle builder,” Jamie joked, grinning. Lori smiled faintly and nodded her head before reaching for something to give to Carl. Jamie carried her load over to the open back of the truck, sliding it in as far as she could so that there was still room for more things.

“Don’t strain yourself there sweetheart,” Shane called over from where he was standing and talking with Dale about riding in the RV.

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she called back as she moved over to the van to get more things. Lori looked over to Shane in disapproval when Jamie was leaning into the van to get a bag and couldn’t see. Shane ignored the look and turned back to Dale, asking him what he could do.

“Don’t worry about Shane,” Lori said from behind Jamie, smiling to Carl when he ran back over for another task. Lori handed him the bag of his father’s clothes and asked him to put it in the back seat, getting an excited nod before running off. “He can be an ass but he’s a harmless ass.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Jamie huffed as she pulled two bags of camping gear up toward her, throwing the lighter over her shoulder and turning to face Lori. “Daryl’s a bit overprotective if you haven’t noticed. If Shane’s not careful, he’s going to have an arrow through his-”

“Mom, what else?” Carl asked as he appeared again, completely oblivious to what he had interrupted.

“Here, kiddo,” Jamie said as she held out the bag with the tent rain cover and the metal pegs that kept the tent in place. “I’m gunna need a strong man to help me with this one, wanna give me a hand? You look good and strong.” She grinned down at the flush that appeared on Carl’s cheeks before he took the bag and hitched it over his shoulder, just as he had seen her doing and rushed back over to the truck. Lori smiled her gratitude to Jamie, getting a pleased nod from the blonde as she lifted the bag with the actual tent and the rods that kept it up.

Lori and Jamie kept up light conversation as they passed one another between the trips to and from the van. Carl was a constant little helper, always looking for something that he could do to help. If he wasn’t trying to help them he was off trying to please Shane.

By the time they were finished with emptying all they needed from the van, the guys were back with the gasoline for the RV, truck and bike. Jamie grabbed her things from the truck Daryl was leaving behind to hand them over to Dale when he assured her that he’d take good care of them. The other vehicles were crowded enough so she told them she’d be going with Daryl.

“If there’s anyone that needs to do anything before we leave, best do so now,” Rick called over the space they were occupying, getting nods and sounds of confirmation. Not a moment after, Daryl appeared at Jamie’s side and had slung an arm over her shoulder.

“Come on, we’re taking up the lead.” She nodded her head and walked with him up to his bike, glancing back as the others all began to pile into their vehicles as well. Rick watched over everyone like the father of a large family, a caring man that was determined to keep as many of their lives safe as he could. “All ready to go?”

“Yea, I’m all set.”

Daryl swung a leg over to bike first, leaving the space behind him for Jamie. His crossbow was already strapped onto the back, his other things in the RV with Dale. There was barely enough room for Jamie to sit, and she briefly wondered if he had done that with the sole purpose of having her sit as close to him as he could get her. She just shook her head in amusement and moved to hitch a leg over the side of the bike when she saw something that made her pause.

“You’re wearing the vest,” She said softly, gaining his attention. The leather vest that he was wearing was one that he had bought when he saw that angel wings on the back and was immediately reminded of the ones that covered Jamie’s back. She had always teased him by saying he was just jealous that he didn’t get the wing tattoos first, but she knew it wasn’t truly that.

“Don’t go thinkin’ it’s ‘cause I want to match with you,” Daryl said as he looked forward again, getting a smile from Jamie at his deflection. She had always had a soft spot for that vest and he knew it even if she tried to deny it. She took a moment longer to look down at the angel wings of the vest. Shaking her head in amusement, she hitched her leg over the bike to sit behind him, pulling her legs up so that her thighs were pressed tight against his, her pelvis pushed up against his lower back.

“Don’t go gettin’ hard or this’ll be a very uncomfortable ride,” she whispered into his ear, feeling his muscles lock up for a moment before he turned his head to glance back at her, getting an innocent grin from the vixen sitting behind him. The RV started up behind them and Daryl knew that that was their signal to get going. Jamie’s arms wrapped around his torso as he started up the bike, the deep rumble was a familiar sound to her. They soon lurched forward, moving up the bend in the road that led toward the highway and out of the city limits.

_“Goodbye; Morgan, Duane.”_

Daryl drove the bike with ease, having done so many times before, and was able to effortlessly glide along the roads to provide a smooth ride. Jamie’s head rested on his shoulder to protect her face from the wind, her hands splayed on his stomach. She did not know how he could be driving without something protecting his eyes; he didn’t even have sunglasses on.

She just leaned her head down on his shoulder and watched the trees as they flew by them, soon turning into open fields. The sun pressed on her back as it rose to claim the sky, brightening the day around them. She was always tempted to look back in the direction of the CDC, wondering if the thick plumes of smoke still clouded the sky. For the entire day after the left the CDC, all that could be seen were the dark traces of smoke. It blackened the sky nearly as much as the events that had led up to its creation blackened their minds and souls.

She looked up once in early afternoon when she noticed they were passing cars and saw that they were on a highway. There was a huge jam of cars and a large transport truck had been flipped on its side up ahead, blocking off most of the road. She looked back toward the RV, but the sun was too bright to see into the windshield and she quickly looked forward again. Daryl only went so far up before turning the bike around and heading back toward the others. He rode right up toward the window that Dale opened, leaning out.

“See a way through?”

Daryl glanced back before nodding once and motioning back toward the road, moving to drive around so they could come full circle. There was no point in trying to talk over the rumbling engine of the bike, they’d just be screaming at each other. Daryl drove as slowly as he could through the roads, letting the trucks keep pace behind him.

Jamie looked at the trucks and cars that they passed by, several still holding the bodies of people who had killed themselves. It looked like a graveyard in the middle of a highway. There were things thrown about on the road as people rushed to and fro, clothes and other belongings just lying on the ground. She almost felt sorry for running over all the different things but knew they wouldn’t be missed.

They were making pretty good progress when the RV began to squeal behind them, steam rising from the engine as the hose that she had placed inside finally met its end as well. Their caravan of cars pulled to a stop, all ignitions turning off to preserve the fuel for later. Jamie rose from the bike first, walking a bit in a circle as Daryl dismounted to get the feeling back into her legs and ass.

“There a problem, Dale?” Shane asked as Jamie and Daryl made their way over to the others, the steam rising from the engine of the RV drawing everyone into a crowd to see what there was to do.

“Oh, just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-” Dale cut off suddenly as he looked over to watch as Daryl began to poke around inside the back of an abandoned van, seeing what there was to find. “Okay, that is dumb,” he muttered finally, looking around at the vast number of vehicles on the highway.

“Can’t find a radiator hose here,” Shane said sarcastically, looking back at Dale over his shoulder.

“Plenty of things we can get here,” Jamie said as she looked over to see what had Daryl so interested. “We can probably find some more supplies; medical, food, maybe _deodorant_.” Daryl looked over at the word, seeing that Jamie was looked away from him but just _knowing_ that the comment was secretly directed at him. Carol smiled softly in amusement at the two, looking over to notice a look much the same on Lori’s face. It was actually quite amusing to listen to the two.

“Siphon more fuel from the cars, too,” T-Dog added in.

“Do you want some help with that, Dale?” Jamie asked when she saw Glenn carrying over his bag of tools.

“Don’t worry; I can take care of this old thing. You take a look around because there’ll be more eyes needed out there than over here,” Dale assured, getting a nod from Jamie as she moved off with the others in search of something important. She wasn’t really looking for something specific since the only thing they could do was guess what was in each bag they came across.

It didn’t take long to find some clothes that looked about her size, including jeans. She nearly felt like crying in happiness at the thought of _finally_ getting out of the uniform pants that Rick had found for her. She double checked the sizes before she folded them up and placed them aside so she could continue to look through the different pairs of clothing and whatever else was in the bag. She found a small thing of first aid; Tylenol, Benadryl, Band-Aid’s, and some disinfectant. She placed those on top of the clothes to bring back as well before pushing some things aside to look deeper.

She didn’t want to add another bag to the mix, so she simply placed the things she found aside to carry back and give to the others or put inside her own bag.

“Jamie!” A hushed called caused the woman to drop down, knowing the tone. She looked over to where Lori was, mouthing a word to her. She squinted to see, her eyes widening when she finally realized what it was that she was trying to portray to her. _Walkers._

She jumped up into the van that she was standing behind, pulling the back down as she ducked low so that she couldn’t be seen in the windows. Her heart began to thrum wildly in her chest until she was almost certain that the walkers could hear it as they made their way by. She covered her mouth in an attempt to quiet her breathing, refusing to look up because she knew what she was going to see. The bags of clothes and other things that she had been looking through made a comfortable cushion for her to sit on, but she was sitting with her legs cramped up beneath her and it was starting to cut off the circulation.

She kept her head down as she listened to the raspy groaning of the walkers as they made their way passed the van, moving along without even realizing the food that they were leaving behind. Her head was spinning as she breathed through her nose deeply, thinking over where she had seen everyone littered around the highway.

But, where was Daryl?


	18. Angel's Can't Die

Jamie pushed the back door to the truck that she was in open, leaning out and looking around. She looked over to where Carol was gasping in tears with Lori had her side. She had heard Sophia screaming and knew that Rick had run after her, but it clearly didn’t calm down Carol. She jumped down from the truck that she was in, clothes tumbling to the ground around her as they caught on her boots and around her ankles.

“What if he couldn’t…what if-”

“Don’t worry, everything should be just fine, Rick will find her,” Lori tried to assure, stroking her hand over Carol’s back. Jamie jogged over as her eyes darted around. Carl was over with Shane and Glenn, Dale kneeling on top of the RV as he looked around with the binoculars. She moved over to a car and jumped up onto the hood of the car to get a higher view point, looking around. She couldn’t see Andrea, T-Dog or Daryl.

“Daryl?” she called out, looking between deserted cars, her heart beginning to throb inside her chest again. She made sure not to yell too loudly, knowing that the walkers were still nearby and she couldn’t risk them hearing her yelling. She stepped up again until she was standing on the hood of the car, the wind stronger at the higher point and pulling at her hair.

“Don’t go and start panicking,” Daryl said from behind her. She spun around quickly to face the opposite side of the car that she was on. “Worried about me, Angel?” he asked with a smirk. There was blood on his hands and his face was darkened with dirt, but he didn’t seem hurt in the least. Jamie sighed in relief and stepped over to his side of the car as he held his hands out to her, catching her arms as she wrapped them around his shoulders and lowered her to the ground. Blood smeared on her shirt and dirt covered her cheek, but she didn’t care.

“I can’t help it,” she mumbled into his shoulders. He reeked of something rotten, but she didn’t really want to ask why. She pulled back and took hold of his hands, looking at the red that stained them. “What happened?”

“Dog,” He answered simply, looking over to the RV. T-Dog was holding a red bandana to his forearm, most of his shirt stained with the blood. He didn’t look too good and she was concerned with the amount of blood that he had lost. “Walkers could smell the blood, I had to hide it so I dropped a dead one on him.”

“Is that why you smell like something died?” she asked as she leaned away from him, looking over for any sign of a walker having been on him. He smelled like something that’d been dead and cooking in the sun, but not the same as the living dead.

“I pulled a dead guy out of a car,” he answered back. “What happened here?”

“Sophia got chased off by a walker,” she answered back, her voice hushing as she looked over to the distraught mother. Carol wasn’t calming down, she only seemed to be getting worse as time went on and her daughter didn’t return. “Rick ran after them, but we don’t know what’s going on.”

“He’s coming back!” Shane called from where he was watching the woods, drawing everyone’s attention back toward the trees. Jamie and Daryl moved over the guardrail to see Rick rushing through the trees. His white shirt had blood staining the right shoulder, the moisture of his sweat having caused the blood to spread wider. He was alone.

“Sophia!” Carol nearly screamed, reaching outward with her hands as she cried, desperately trying to reach the daughter that was not there. Lori held her back, trying to support the woman as she felt down to her knees. Rick looked stricken when he realized that Sophia wasn’t there. Carol’s loud sobs were the only sound that filled the air for a minute before Rick crossed over the guardrail and headed over to Carol.

“We’ll find her, Carol, I promise you that,” he said in a strong voice, determined. Carol didn’t say anything, her head turning into Lori’s shoulder as she continued to cry. Jamie wanted to go over to the woman and help her, but she knew that too many people wouldn’t help anything. Rick stood up straight and turned to look around at the crowding people. “Daryl, if I show you where I last saw her, could you track her?”

“What happened?” Shane demanded as he slung the shotgun he was holding onto his shoulder, stepping up toward Rick.

“I left her hiding at the creek as I drew the walkers away, but when I went back she had already gone. I’d thought she came back here,” Rick explained in a low voice, trying not to let Carol overhear. “She must have gotten lost.” Rick looked torn and broken, his hands wiping at his face. He had tried to save Sophia’s life but he hadn't been able to save her completely. There could be more walkers out there somewhere and she was on her own.

“If I can find her trail I can follow it,” Daryl answered for Rick’s previous question.

“Alright; Shane, Glenn, Daryl and I will head back toward the creek, see if we can track her down,” Rick said in his authoritative voice. Daryl didn’t show any reaction to the order but Shane and Glenn both nodded their heads. “Jamie, you do what you can to help Dale with the RV, we don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to encase those walkers come back.”

“I think I should look after T-Dog, first. He got cut up in all the commotion,” Jamie said quickly before he could turn away. “I’ll help Dale out afterword, but I’m worried about the amount of blood he’s lost. If the injury isn’t taken care of it could get infected.”

“Alright,” Rick agreed, nodded his head. He moved over to talk briefly with Carol and Lori, both mothers listening to him intently. Daryl pulled Jamie aside and quickly told her where a truck was located that he had seen a large stash of medical supplies. She listened carefully as he told her how to take care of the injury since he had seen it and knew that it was deep.

“I’ll be fine here,” she assured, looking over to where the others guys were getting ready to leave. “You go, be careful. Don’t get into any fights,” she added on, seeing the grin that touched his lips. He pressed a kiss to her temple hurriedly before he jogged after the others guys, the dirt that had stained his skin smudging on her face when he did so. She didn’t care, though, and just watched as he took off.

She quickly moved down the highway in the direction that Daryl had told her to go, looking for the beige van that was flipped on its side. A medical bag that looked like something a paramedic would carry was lying on the ground, near the back window. She didn’t waste time to pick it up and quickly jog back up to where T-Dog was sitting on the steps of the RV.

“Alright, let me see,” she ordered without a greeting, seeing the man look up at her. He didn’t move to uncover the injury, Daryl’s red bandana completely soaked through with his blood. She glared at him for a moment when he didn’t comply. “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The hard way will be much more painful and with the amount of blood you’ve lost you won’t be able to fight much.”

“Girl, leave me alone,” Dog slurred out after a second, leaning his head against the door.

“Alright,” Jamie said as she dropped the bag down. “Hard way it is.” She took a hold of T-Dog’s injured arm and pulled, taking the man to the ground and rolling him onto his back. He cried out in shock and pain, his eyes squeezing shut as his back collided with the ground. Jamie sat down on the ground at his side and locked her legs tightly around the bicep of his injured arm, keeping it still.

“The fuck-” T-Dog swore, glaring up at her when he finally regained himself.

“I told you, hard way,” Jamie replied as she pulled the bag over to herself and opened the zipper, keeping her thighs tight around his bicep so that he couldn’t pull his arm away. She unwound the bandana from his arm and tossed it aside, her hands already covered in blood. The gouge in his arm was deep, just as Daryl had said, and was still seeping blood. “Idiot, you should have gotten this taken care of the second the walkers were gone.”

“I don’t need your help,” he wheezed out, luckily not trying to pull away anymore.

“Shut up,” Jamie ordered, looking down at his face for a moment. He was sweating profusely and his eyes were bloodshot when he looked over at her. “This is gunna burn like a bitch, but hold still as best ya can.” She poured the disinfectant on her hands before doing the same onto one of the square patches of gauze that came inside the bag. She looked down at the injury one more time, feeling lightheaded just from looking at it before she pressed down harshly on the injury, getting a scream from T-Dog. Using one hand to keep the soaked gauze on the injury, she took a second cloth from the bag and held it to his mouth, sticking it between his teeth and ordering him to bite down as hard as he could.

“What’s going on down there?” Dale asked as he leaned over the side of the RV, looking panicked at the screaming that was coming from that large black man.

“Just a routine check-up, nothing to see here!” Jamie called up, never breaking eye contact with T-Dog as he bit down on the rag. Dale still lingered above as he watched Jamie work diligently on T-Dog’s arm, first finishing with the disinfectant before she held a clean piece of the white bandage to his arm to stop the bleeding. She never took her attention away from her work, keeping her attention solely on getting T-Dog taken care of.

“Just don’t kill him,” Dale finally said in an even voice. Jamie lifted a blood handy in acknowledgement , before she took one of the cloths from the bag to clean them off for when she’d be wrapping up T-Dog’s injury with a clean strip of gauze.

“Is he gunna be alright?” Andrea asked from the doorway of the RV, Lori and Carol also making their way over.

“Yea, just bein’ a baby,” Jamie called back, getting a grunt from T-Dog. She quickly wound a second strip of gauze around the square patch that she was holding to his arm so that she could send him to sit down while the bleeding stopped. She didn’t release his arm from her legs until she had tied off the bandage as tightly as she could without doing further damage, letting Andrea help T-Dog into the RV when she finally let him get up.

“How’d you know what to do?” Carol asked in a meek voice, leaning against the roof of one of the cars. Lori had been trying to persuade her away from the guardrails since the guys had left, finally moving when they became concerned for T-Dog.

“Daryl told me before he left.”

They were soon scattered about with chores when Shane and Glenn came back, getting everyone working. T-Dog stayed in the RV when Jamie threatened to tie him down if he tried to move, getting a good scolding from her that he cared not to repeat. Jamie moved about with Glenn to find another radiator hose that they could steal from one of the trucks along the road for the RV, keeping up light conversation with the Korean as they walked and worked.

“Why does Daryl keep calling me Chinaman?” Glenn finally asked as he leaned against the front fender of the truck they were looking in, pausing to drink some of the water that Andrea was passing around. Jamie laughed softly as she pulled her hands away from the engine to wipe the seat off her face with the back of her arm.

“He thinks of a nickname and sticks to it, I don’t really know why he does it. I think it’s ‘cause he feels that he has more control that way. My friend Kaitlyn used to be affectionately known as ‘Shorty’.” Glenn laughed softly at her words and traded her the water bottle for the flathead screwdriver.

“When did he start calling you Angel?”

Jamie took a moment to take a drink of water, peaking over as Glenn finished with removing the radiator hose. “When I was twenty three I got really sick and had to go into the hospital. I’ve been scared of hospitals since I was younger and my mom got sick, I was always afraid that if I went to one I’d die as well,” she started explaining, leaning on her elbows as she watched Glenn’s quick and precise movements. “He told me ‘ _Angels can’t die’_ so that I’d stop worrying. He’s been using the nickname Angel since then.”

“That makes sense, though, I’m not from China!”

“He doesn’t care.” Jamie laughed softly, looking over to where the others were working on their own things. They would be moving to working on finding supplies after they finished getting everything for Dale; Glenn was assigned to food while she was given the task of locating as many medical supplies as she could. The bag that she’d gotten from Daryl was good, but it was mostly bandages and disinfectants, not heavy duty things.

“I’ll take this to Dale,” Glenn said as he collected everything, making sure he didn’t lose any of Dale’s tools. Jamie nodded her hand and clapped him on the back before walking off toward the abandoned cars again.

The sun was beginning to go down as Jamie hitched the medical bag over her shoulder, freshly stocked up with Advil, Tylenol, Band-Aids and a couple of braces for sprained joints. She had collected the clothes that she left behind in the commotion of walkers earlier in the day and had already placed them in her bag, added the medical supplies she found into the red bag over her shoulder.

She knew right away that something was wrong when she came back to see everyone crowding together near the guardrail, Carol in the center of them. She dropped the bag near the boxes of food that Glenn had placed on the ground and made her way over to where they were all standing, seeing Rick stepping over the rail. She moved over to lean against one of the cars and listened as Carol held back tears, whatever hope she had been holding onto crumbling.

“Out in the dark’s no good,” Daryl said in a husky voice, keeping it quiet as he tried to stop Carol from panicking further. “We’d just be tripping over ourselves; more people’d get lost.”

“She’s twelve,” Carol said desperately, fidgeting on the spot. “She can’t be out there on her own! You didn’t find anything?” she begged, turning to Rick. The others all shuffled on the spot, not knowing what it was that they could do for her.

Rick spoke calmly, his voice soothing. Jamie wondered how much practice he had with talking to grieving families. “Carol, I know this is asking a lot but I need you to not panic. We know she was out there.”

“We tracked her for a while,” Daryl added on. Jamie knew the tone that he was using, it was the same one that she had heard when he was talking her out of her hysterical state when he told her he was taking her to the hospital. He was doing his utmost best to stop Carol from panicking by calming her down with words of whatever reassurance he could give.

“We have to make this an organized effort,” Rick said of a heartbeat, looking at the remainder of the group. “Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I’ve asked him to oversee this.” Rick couldn’t say much more before Carol drew everyone’s attention to a patch of blood that was staining Daryl’s pants, beginning to panic all over again. Daryl assured her that it was the blood of a walker, once again causing her to panic, but he explained calmly that they had cut it open and made sure it hadn't run into Sophia.

It’s heartbreaking to watch someone turn on an innocent person, looking for someone to blame. So when Carol turned blame to Rick for leaving Sophia in the woods so that he could deal with the walkers was hard on everyone. Jamie looked away from the scene, Rick kneeling on the ground before Carol as he tried to make her see everything the way that things truly were. Andrea and Lori sat with Carol to try and comfort her while Rick walked away, avoiding everyone else.

The women all looked up to Jamie, as though they expected for her to join them, but she just looked away from them and turned to walk after Rick, hoping that she could talk to him. Before she had even made it passed the first car Daryl cut into her path, shaking his head. Jamie looked off to where Rick was heading one last time before turning away, leaning against the back door of a van.

_“Jamie, open the door or I’m going to open it for ya,” Daryl called through the thick wood of the bathroom door. Jamie leaned her head under the shower, letting the cold water wash over her head. Still clothed in a sweaty tank top and cotton shorts, she was tempted to just pull herself into the shower and let the water run over her. Her body felt like it was on fire, as though someone had stuck her in an oven to cook._

_“I’m fine,” she yelled back, without moving her head out from under the steady stream._

_“You have a fever of 106,” Daryl reminded, banging on the door again. Jamie didn’t reply but turned off the water, breathing heavily as the discomfort of her burning skin caused her to squirm. “Jamie!”_

_“Go away!” she ordered, sitting down on the cold floor and leaning against the equally cold wall. A loud bang made her scream in surprise, her hands flying up to protect herself. The scream made her throat feel like it was bleeding, already sore as it was. The door to the washroom flew open and banged loudly against the wall, denting the drywall. “Daryl!”_

_“Shut up,” Daryl growled out, stepping into the smaller room. Jamie’s skin was as white as paper as she sat on the floor of her pale blue bathroom, her long hair dripping wet and dampening her shirt quickly. She was breathing heavily and looked as though she was about to pass out. “You’re burnin’ up, hallucinatin’ and you can barely stay on your own feet. I’m taking you to the hospital,” he said as he stepped up to her, doing his best to ignore the long legs that were shown to him, her skin nearly as dark as his own._

_“No!” she yelled, drawing back into the corner of the room like a frightened child._

_“Jamie!” Daryl yelled, grabbing her arms before she could take a run for it. “Calm down, Jamie!” She was nearly sobbing as she leaned her head back against the glass of the shower door, closing her eyes. The commotion had brought some colour back to her cheeks, but she still looked deathly._

_“Don’t make me go, I don’t want to go!” she sobbed loudly, shaking her head but still refusing to open her eyes. “Please, Daryl, don’t make me go there.”_

_“Jamie, look at me,” Daryl said in a soft voice, surprising the blonde enough to look toward him, her eyes filled with moisture as tears threatened at the brim to fall. “You don’t need to be afraid, Babe,” He explained softly, still holding her arms but slackening his grip just a bit. “You don’t got anythin’ to worry about. You know why?”_

_Jamie took a deep breath as she shook her head, a single tear slipping down her cheek and mingling with the water droplets that were left there from the shower. Daryl lifted his hands to rubs his thumbs along her cheeks, brushing the tears away from her eyes._

_“Angels can’t die.”_

_Jamie’s eyes were large, moist gold spheres as they looked up at him, still trembling in his hold. He used gentle, slow motions to pull her away from the corner while she wasn’t fighting, slipping an arm under her legs and picking her up off the tiles. She leaned away from him when his body heat assaulted her flushed skin, but could only move away so far when he was carrying her._

_“Don’t let them touch me, please,” she mumbled as her head lolled back with fatigue as Daryl expertly locked the door of her apartment behind them while he was still holding onto her. “I don’t wanna die.”_

_“I won’t let anythin’ happen to you, Angel.”_


	19. Bloodhound

“How come Jamie gets a gun, then?” Andrea asked sharply, the other blonde’s head rising up at the sound of her name, turning away from cleaning off her knife as she waited for everyone else to be ready. She looked fatigued after not getting much sleep the night before, sleeping on the floor of the RV providing mostly just back pain.

“Jamie knows how to shoot one, for starters,” Shane said, trying to get Andrea to drop the subject on guns before it escaladed any further. Jamie could see the burning hatred that had been in Andrea’s eyes whenever she looked at her, it had been the same way since they were back at the CDC and she had yelled at her.

“Fine, you don’t think it’s fair?” Jamie asked, pulling the strap of her gun off her shoulders and moving over to Dale, holding the gun out to him. He hesitated, not wanting to actually take her gun. “Then I won’t take one. Go ahead, fair’s fair, right?” She pushed the gun at Dale again, the man still not reaching forward the take it from her. His eyes moved over to look up when Daryl stepped up to Jamie from behind.

“You’re taking your gun,” Daryl interrupted, snatching the gun from her hand before Dale could even reach forward to take hold of it. “Just because Andrea’s being a bitch about it don’t mean I’m risking your life,” He explained, holding the gun out for her to take. “Take it.” Jamie finally slipped the strap around her hand again, looking over to where Andrea scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“That’s enough of this,” Shane said quickly before a fight could arise, “Everyone, assemble your packs, we’re heading out in five minutes.” Jamie and Andrea continued to glare at one another before stepping off after a minute, Andrea making a bee line for Dale while Jamie went to get her small bag that carried her and Daryl’s things for their hike in the woods.

“I expected more of a fight,” Daryl said as he came up behind her and slipped one of the filled water bottles into the bag, looking up at Jamie as she turned her head in his direction as he spoke. She knew exactly what he meant, but she really just didn’t want to argue with anyone right now. The best thing to do is just try and drop things quickly.

“Guess things changed when the world ended,” she said back softly, feeling the tug when he zipped the bag closed again. They both looked back toward the RV when Andrea started to make a scene again, this time butchering Dale’s feelings in the process. Jamie glared fiercely at the blonde before Daryl stepped into her view.

“Let ‘em deal with their own problems.” Sighing loudly, she nodded her head as she adjusted her bag strap one last time. Andrea soon stormed passed them with a glower on her face, her strides long and holding her anger.  Jamie just _knew_ that it was going to be a very long day.

“This should be fun,” she whispered as she peaked up at Daryl, watching as he held back a smirk and shook his head, nudging her forward to walk ahead of him. They filed their way down the path and into the forest, following the trail that Daryl and Rick had found the day before that Sophia had left behind. Daryl and Rick brought up the front with Jamie, Andrea and Carol following behind and then Lori and Carl walking in front of Shane, who brought up the rear. Jamie could still feel Andrea’s glare, hot on the back of her neck.

It wasn’t too long into their hike that they came across what looked like a small camp sight, hidden within the trees. Daryl stepped quietly forward, his crossbow at the ready. He signalled for everyone to lower to the ground, staying quiet. There wasn’t any movement inside the tent and it only looked big enough for two people at the most.

“She could be in there,” Shane suggested, remaining standing with his shotgun in his hands. He had never once relaxed his hold on the gun as they were walking along the path.

“Could be a whole bunch of things in there,” Daryl commented, looking back at Jamie and motioning her forward. She nodded her head and pulled her knife from the sheath on her thigh, staying low as she followed after Daryl, Rick and Shane stepping behind them quietly. They slipped up to the tent by themselves, Daryl placing his crossbow down in preference of his own knife. He tried to look inside the small opening in the entrance to the tent, but there wasn’t enough space to see much of anything. Jamie slipped over to the side to quietly push aside the rain cover to see if she had any better luck.

Daryl looked back at her for her answer and she shook her head, moving a step back encase there was something inside. Daryl lifted his hands in a type of shrug as he looked over to Rick and Shane, standing back a couple of yards from the tent. Jamie remained crouching on the ground, waiting for someone to give an order on what was to be done. They’d have to look inside.

Rick called Carol forward quietly, motioning her up to him. Jamie couldn’t hear what he was saying to her, but she had a feeling that he wanted to use Carol’s voice as a lure for if Sophia was inside the tent. Daryl stood at the entrance of the tent with his knife ready, a precaution for if there was a walker inside the tent.

“Sophia,” Carol called out softly, looking nervous as she watched the tent for any movement. “Sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it’s mommy. Sophia? We’re all here baby, it’s mommy.” Jamie slipped forward and let Daryl move to the right of the tent opening, allowing him to have the perfect view inside the tent as she began to slide the zipped on the bottom of the entrance aside. The material of the tent slackened as she drew the metal along, looking up at where Rick and Shane had stepped over to join them.

Daryl gave her a quick nod when she looked up to him and she reached into the tent to grasp the edge of the material that made up the door, pulling it toward her and opening up a space. The stench that wafted out nearly made her lose her grip as she turned her head away, into her bicep, to try and alleviate the stink. Daryl flinched back for a moment, his own arm moving to cover his mouth. Jamie tried to hold her breath, tried to stay there and hold the door open, but the rank smell that was coming from the tent turned her stomach, made her face flush as she held back the nausea, and she had to turn away and step back a few strides, closing Daryl in the tent after he’d stepped inside.

Shane and Rick didn’t seem to be having any better luck, leaning over and coughing as they fought the reflex to throw up. Jamie stepped over to the woods nearby and leaned over as she gagged, but nothing came up. Her stomach was empty, anyway. She coughed once to try and dislodge the smell from her nose and the air in her throat, placing a hand over her mouth.

“Daryl?” Carol called out softly, standing with Lori at her side, an arm around her shoulders in comfort.

Daryl soon pushed from the tent, taking in a breath of the fresher air. “Ain’t her,” he assured, stepping away from the tent to get the smell away from him. Jamie remained a couple paces away from the tent, not wanting to throw up any stomach acid that day.

“What’s in there?” Andrea asked from the back of the group.

“Some guy. Did what Jenner said, ‘opted out’.” He picked up his crossbow and stowed away his knife, looking over to where Jamie was refusing to come close. “Ain’t that what he called it?”

The sudden, loud ring of a bell caused everyone to jolt and look in the direction of the sound; or at least where they thought the sound was coming from. With all of the trees, it was hard to tell. Everyone took a moment to look around, listening carefully as they tried to pinpoint the location of the bell. Jamie jogged passed the others when she got a good enough feel on it, the three men outside the tent following after her.

They slowed down after a while when they came to an area where the trees thinned out, dead leaves covering the ground like a blanket. Jamie stopped to listen carefully, placing her hand on a tree to lean against it. The men were talking behind her, trying to figure out what direction they should be going in. Daryl just watched her carefully, knowing that she had always been good at listening to the location of sounds. She prided herself for it whenever he took her to the hunting cabin, he could never sneak up on her.

“Would y’all shut up,” Daryl finally hissed, silencing everyone. He kept his eyes on where Jamie was standing, looking around as she turned her head from side to side. She paused at one point, listening for a longer time than she had before. “This way,” he said, pointing in the direction that Jamie was beginning to jog in.

“How do you know?” Carol asked softly, walking quickly to get down the small hill they were on.

“Bitch’s got bat hearing,” Daryl commented, following after his fiancé. The others looked at each other doubtfully, but moved to follow afterword anyway, taking up a jog to get their faster. Jamie was right, however, and they soon rushed from the trees into the sight of a graveyard, the church sitting down at the bottom of another hill.

“That’s ma’ girl,” Daryl said as he placed a hand on top of Jamie’s head in a mock pat, like one would praise a dog for sniffing something out. She ducked away and smacked his arm, trying not to laugh because of the morbid mood that still hung around the group.

“This can’t be it,” Shane said as he came up beside her, “Ain’t got no bells.”

“That you can see,” Jamie said in answer before stepping away from him and moving down the hill, Rick and Daryl following fast behind. The rest of the group were spurred into movement as well, following after them toward the small white church. Rick took lead toward the church, taking off at a dead run with Jamie and Shane not far behind, Daryl and Glenn right behind. They ran their way through the graves and high tomb stones and memorials, running passed a sign that said “ _Southern Baptist Church.”_

Rick and Daryl moved to the doorway, standing on either side. Rick made a silent ‘shh’ motion to everyone else before he moved to push on his door at the same time that Daryl pushed on the side he was standing on. The faded red doors swung open with a squeal of the hinges, revealing three walkers sitting in the pews. They slowly turned to look at the group, growling lowly as they rose to their feet.

“Fuck,” Jamie mumbled as she pulled her knife from its place, just in case. Daryl, Rick and Shane moved in first, Lori handing her knife to Rick so he didn’t need to use his gun, and made a fast pace toward the walkers. Glenn gave Daryl his hooked knife, his crossbow passed over to Jamie. Rick pounded on the walker that he had approached, even after it was sure to be dead. Daryl backed away from the woman that he had killed before she could fall on him, half of her face torn apart from the blade he was using.

“I thought the damned couldn’t enter churches,” Glenn mumbled to Jamie, hearing her hum in agreement as her face soured slightly. She moved into the church, looking around for any sign that there were more.

“Sophia!” Rick screamed, checking the doors along the side of the church that only led outside as fire exits. Daryl moved up to the large cross at the front of the church, a wax moulding of Jesus Christ tied up to it.

“Yo, J.C., you takin’ requests?”

The disturbing part of it was that there was blood covering the statue.

The bells began to go off again, making them all jump at the loud and abrupt sound. Jamie looked around for any sign of where the bell was coming form as Daryl ran passed to get outside before the sound cut off. She was the last one out the door, heading around the side. Everyone had stopped running at the corner, only enough to see where the sound of the bell was coming from. Jamie stepped around toward Daryl to see what everyone was looking at. Her heart sunk at the sight of a speaker near the roof.

Glenn was the one to rush forward and turn off the bell before it could attract unwanted attention.

“A timer,” Daryl panted out, motioning up toward the speaker. “It’s on a timer.”

Jamie’s eyes fell closed with her head bowed down, the hope that had been burrowed in her chest slowly disappearing. She could feel the crossbow being slipped from her hands just before Daryl’s chin rested on the top of her crown, his arm coming around her shoulders. She had been able to lead them there, but for what? More disappointment.

“Come on,” he encouraged in a low voice, leading her over to where everyone else as starting to return to the church with Carol in the lead. Daryl sat them down at the back of the church, letting her lean against him at the end of the pew closest to the wall. At any other time, Daryl would have made some kind of comment about how she should be careful inside the church, God might take her back up to Heaven. He was silent now, listening to Carol’s broken prayer as she stood before the statue of Jesus.

“Maybe if I really was an Angel,” Jamie started whispering, “I could put in a word to God and get Sophia back.”

“Guess we’re doing this on our own.”

They were soon clustered outside, the smell of the rotting bodies and the _church_ just too much to bear. Jamie sat on a stone bordering that surrounded a large tree, the shade giving her some peace from the sun. She was probably going to have a light burn on her shoulders, but she’d had so many through the years she barely even felt them anymore.

“Alright, y’all are gonna follow the creek bed back,” Shane said as he finally came over from where he had been talking with Rick in hushed voices. “Daryl, you’re in charge. Me and Rick, we’re just gonna hang back, search this area another hour.”

“Splitting everyone up,” Jamie said evenly, “Are you really sure that’s the best idea?” she asked as she looked up to Rick and Shane, squinting her eyes against the light. Her white tank top was already covered in dirt and soaked through with sweat, the jeans that she had changed into covered with dirt on the bottom.

“Yea,” Shane answered immediately. “We’ll catch up to you.”

“I wanna stay to,” Carl said as he stepped forward, causing everyone to look down at him. “I’m her friend.” Lori, Shane and Rick all looked at one another, trying to think of what to say to the boy. Jamie briefly wondered why it was that Carl seemed to want to get into the walker business so soon, but held her tongue and just listened.

Morgan had wanted to teach Duane how to shoot properly, to take care of himself. It made sense that Carl learn, too.

Daryl offered her his hands, waiting until she had a good grip on them before he pulled her up from where she was sitting, pressing her chest against his in the process. She raised an eyebrow at him in question, only getting an innocent look from him. Well, as innocent of a look as Daryl Dixon could muster up; which was not all that much. She leaned against him more and wrapped her arms around his waist for a moment, leaning her head back to look at him fully. They received a few glances from the people around them, but they mostly kept to themselves and stayed out of it.

“And back to the woods,” Jamie mumbled before she pressed a kiss against his lips, his goatee scratching at her chin and upper lip. Daryl bit her lower lip softly before she could pull away, reddening the delicate skin further. She backed away before she got them in trouble, hiding a grin as she collected her bag from the ground. She had a strong feeling that he was eyeing her ass as she did so, as well.

Jamie started off through the tombstones again, glancing back once to watch as Daryl handed over a gun to Lori when she refused to take Rick’s. She also didn’t miss when Andrea scoffed and rolled her eyes, proving just what an additional pain she was going to be. Now there were two women that got guns and she didn’t. They were all relieved for the shade that was provided from the trees when they were walking, but the added bonus of _bugs_ had a very different effect.

“It’s almost like old times,” Jamie said as she walked softly beside Daryl, her hand holding the strap of her gun as she looked through the brush they were walking passed. “Only difference is that we’re looking for a person, not an animal, and there’s a parade of people behind us.”

“You were quieter then, too.”

“Bite me, Dixon.”

“Well, if you insist.”

“So this is it?” Carol called from behind them, drawing them to a stop. They both turned to see that she had stopped and sat down on a fallen tree, whether she was giving up or just resting wasn’t clear. “This the whole plan?”

“Guess the plan is to widdle us down into smaller and smaller groups,” Daryl said as he moved to lean against one of the nearby trees, looking over to Carol and the others. Jamie took that moment to pull off the bag on her shoulders, letting them rest by removing the added weight.

“Carrying knives and pointy sticks,” Andrea added in, before she looked over to where Lori was starting to rummage through the backpack that she had been carrying. “I see you have a gun.”

“Why, you want it?” Lori asked, straightening up with the weapon in her hand. “Here, take it.” She held the gun out to the other woman, holding onto the muzzle so that Andrea could take the handle. “I’m sick of the looks you’re giving me, the looks you’re giving Jamie. I’m shocked she hasn’t said something about them to you.” Andrea looked dumbfounded at being called out before scoffing and taking the gun from Lori, looking away from the mother.

Jamie could feel that something was about to start up, knowing that the dam had cracked and was about to burst. Lori had simply been the last rock thrown to initiate it. Things could get real ugly, and she as not looking forward to it. Her eyes moved over to Daryl, tense and alert for everything that was going on, but remaining leaned against the tree.

“Honey,” Lori started, looking up to Carol and gaining the other woman’s attention, “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, and I would do anything to stop it but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face _every_ time you look at him. And when Sophia ran he didn’t hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don’t know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did. Or make the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently.” Lori stopped talking for a moment to look around at everyone, all eyes on her as she finished her speech. Everything was on the table now. “Anybody?”

No one said a thing, unsure of how to react to what she was saying.

“Y’all look to him and then blame him when he’s not perfect. You think you can do this without him, go right ahead, nobody’s stopping you!” She began to shove things back into her bag after taking a drink from her water, her anger showing in her actions.

“Rick helped me save Jamie,” Daryl said suddenly, surprising the group. “That’s good enough for me.” Jamie looked over to him, her hazel eyes softening when they met his blue ones. He looked away in a sheepish gesture, causing her to smile at the randomness of his timidity. Andrea silently held the gun back out to Lori, the regret of her actions visible on her face.

“We should keep moving."


	20. Ding, Dong, Ditch

“Did you hear that?” Jamie asked suddenly, turning to look in the direction that they had come from. She had fallen back to walk with Lori some time before, the two women coming to a silent understanding with one another. Originally, there was only one thing that they had in common; Rick. Now, however, they seemed to know more about the other than had even been said.

“It was a gunshot,” Lori said as she looked around the woods. The sound had come from the distance, but it was unsettling to hear. Jamie knew that it wasn’t one of Rick’s or Shane’s guns; they made a different sound when fired. Rick’s was quieter and Shane’s had more of an explosive tone to it. That gun was like hers, a sniper rifle; sharp. She wasn’t about to say that aloud, though. Lori would have a heart attack.

“We all heard it,” Daryl said from the front of the group.

“Why one?” Lori demanded, “Why just one gunshot?”

“Maybe they had to drop a walker?”

“Please don’t patronize me; you know Rick wouldn’t risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane. They’d do it quietly.” Jamie looked up to Daryl, knowing that he had a hunch about the gunshot as well. They both stayed quiet, however, and kept a close eye on Lori.

“Shouldn’t they have caught up with us by now?” Carol asked, adding on to the mounting concern. Jamie felt like groaning in despair at the amount of problems being pointed out began to add up. Why was it that in times of worry people felt the need to add on to it with more things to worry about?

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Jamie said in a soft voice, trying to keep the wrath of the women off of her. “If we go off to find them we might get caught out here in the dark. It’s too dangerous to turn back now and still expect to make it to the highway before nightfall.” Lori looked over to her with wide eyes, probably have assumed that she would have stuck with her on the matter and wanted to investigate.

“Can’t go running around these woods chasin’ echoes,” Daryl added in, looking around the trees that surrounded them.

“So what do we do?”

“Same as we’ve been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway,” Daryl answered immediately, taking his assigned position as the leader of the rag-tag group. Although Lori was reluctant, she didn’t fight the matter and moved with the rest of them to head in the direction that they were originally going. Jamie had to pull Daryl up to the front of the group at one point when Carol and Andrea fell behind talking, reassuring Carol in a way that was a tad bit too harsh.

“Your people skills still suck,” she said as she released his shirt and continued walking, getting a glower from the man. “Let them have their hope; if they think that praying to God will help save Sophia then let them. Don’t crush their beliefs like that. I don’t think that it’s doing any good, but I ain’t gunna say that to their faces.”

Daryl was silent as he walked with her, the rest of the group lagging behind slightly after he had spoken out. “That gunshot-”

“I know.”

They came to a joint decision that they’d head back to the highway when the sun started fading through the trees quickly, everyone knowing that they’d just be tripping over each other if they tried to keep looking for Sophia in the dark. They continued on their way through the woods in silence, the only sounds were the wind, the animals and their feet treading over the leaves and sticks that littered the ground. The air was cooling down as night approached, giving them a reprieve from the heat that had been crushing them most of the day.

“I hate bugs,” Jamie finally said after nothing but an expanded silence within the group. There was one large groan of agreement from the others as they were walking and a scoff from Daryl at the head of the merry band of survivors. “You stink so bad the bugs don’t wanna go near you, nothin’ you have to worry about.”

“Like you said earlier, bite me.”

“Don’t tempt me,” she answered back as she stepped over a fallen tree, half decayed. Glenn grinned in amusement from behind them, unseen by the others. The two were definitely a source of entertainment in the middle of nowhere.

“How much farther?” Lori asked, breaking up the mock fight that was brewing between the two lovers at the front of the group.

“About a hundred yards,” Daryl answered back, beginning to huff from the exertion that he had put out that day. “As the crow flies,” he added on. Jamie looked up at the trees and scouted for birds, spotting many of them sitting up in the braches, looking harmless. She knew that they could do some damage though, and preferred them to stay up there.

“Too bad we’re not crows,” Andrea snapped from behind them.

Jamie jumped up onto a log, looking around the area. She couldn’t see any form of a path, so there was no way that the woods they were in were walked through very often. Even if it had been nearly two months since the world had gone to shit, the paths wouldn’t have been completely overrun with plant life yet. A sharp scream from their right jolted everyone, looking around. Andrea wasn’t there.

“Andrea!” Lori yelled, watching as Daryl and Jamie bolted off in the direction of the scream. The others followed behind but weren’t able to keep up as easily in the terrain. They weren’t used to running around in the woods like Daryl and Jamie were. They soon rounded into the clearing where Andrea was on the ground, trying to squirm away from a walker that had a hold of her kicking feel.

“What the-” Jamie started, looking over to where the heavy sound of horse hooves were coming from. A woman was riding in on a chestnut horse, much like the one that she and Rick had ridden into the City on. She rode directly passed the walker, swinging a bat as she went. The wood cracked against the skull of the walker with a sickening sound, the dead man going down hard.

“Lori?” The woman on the horse asked, looking down at Andrea. “Lori Grimes?”

“I’m Lori,” the brunette said from behind Jamie, coming to a stop a couple of yards away from the woman.

“Rick sent me, you’ve got to come now,” The woman demanded, tightening her hold on the reigns when the horse started to fidget on the spot. “There’s been an accident; Carl’s been shot.” Silence fell over the group at the words that the woman spoke, everyone’s hearts dropping from their chest to their feet. Jamie looked over to Lori, the stricken look on the woman’s face breaking her heart. “He’s still alive but you’ve got to come now.”

Lori didn’t move at first, unsure of whether or not she should believe her.

“Rick needs you, now come!” The woman demanded, motioning to the saddle behind her. Lori finally began moving, shucking off her backpack and handing it to a startled Jamie. She opened her mouth to say something, but Daryl beat her to it.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, we don’t know this girl!” He yelled at Lori, but she strode right past him to get to the horse. He looked over to Jamie, who was still gapping as she tried to grasp what was going on, Lori’s bag held in her hand. “You can’t get on that horse!”

“Rick said there were others on the highway,” the woman started, helping Lori up as she looked over to Daryl in challenge, “That big traffic snarl? Track back two miles to our farm, you’ll see the mail box. Name’s Greene.” Without another word the woman spurred the horse on, galloping away from the clearing they were all standing in. Jamie looked around at everyone else, seeing the same dumbfounded looks on their faces as well.

The raspy groaning of the walker soon filled the clearing as it sat back up, half its head smashed in with blood covering a good portion of it. Carol and Glenn backed away from it while Daryl glared over at the dead man, irritated from what had just transpired.

“Shut up,” he ordered, firing off an arrow into the side of the walkers head, putting it down for good.

**~*~**

Jamie sat on the hood of one of the cars by the RV, listening to them discuss whether or not they should go down to the farm. There were many variables that needed to be thought over before they actually did anything. Carol was scared that they might leave and Sophia would come back to find them gone, leaving her on her own. They all agreed that it was plausible and something to be greatly considered.

“Okay,” Daryl said as he looked from Carol over to Dale, who seemed to have taken charge. “We’ve got a plan for this. I say tomorrow morning’s soon enough to pull up the stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies.” Jamie nodded in agreement as Carol smiled to him gratefully. “I’ll hold here tonight, stay with the RV.”

“If the RV’s staying then I am to,” Dale said, nodding his head in agreement to Daryl’s plan.

“I’ll stay back,” Jamie added in, looking over to Carol. “Strength in numbers, right?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Glenn added in nervously, getting their attention. “If Carl’s been shot, he’s going to need a lot of blood transfusions. Lori or Rick can only give so many. You said you were O-, that’s compatible with all blood types.”

“He’s right,” Dale agreed. “You go with Glenn and Andrea-”

“I’m staying. There’s no point in all of us going,” Andrea said quickly, getting a nod from Dale.

“Alright, then it’s Glenn, Jamie and T-Dog. We’ve got to reconnect with our people, we can’t stay split like this. More importantly, the work that Jamie did on T-Dog’s arm was only temporary, he needs more help than we can give. That cut has gone from bad to worse.” Jamie looked over to where T-Dog was sitting on the back fender of the RV, wrapping in a blanket. “He has a very serious blood infection, get him to that farm.”

“T-Dog, I told you to keep it clean!” Jamie called over to where the man was sitting, but he just looked away from her and ignored what she said.

“If they don’t have antibiotics then T-Dog will die, no joke,” Dale continued, looking over to Jamie and Glenn.

Daryl marched over to the car that Jamie was sitting on quickly, tossing a handful of white rags to Dale. “Peeled all the white rags off my brother’s motorcycle. Why’d you wait till now to say anything?” He placed down a large freezer bag of pill bottles on the hood of the car, beginning to look through them. Jamie knew right away where they’d come from. “Got my brother’s stash.”

“Wonderful,” Jamie said blandly.

“Crystal, X; don’t need that.” He pulled a bottle from inside and read the label quickly before passing it over to Glenn. “Kick ass painkillers, that’s what I gave Jamie for her back.”

“You gave me _Merle’s_ drugs?” she demanded, her voice rising in pitch.

“You already had a hunch, I know you did,” Daryl said as he looked her in the eye before moving to return the bag to his things. Jamie huffed, knowing that he was right. Dale just grinned, clearly pleased that Daryl had something to help T-Dog out.

“We need to get moving soon, then,” Glenn said as he looked over to T-Dog. Jamie slid herself down off the hood of the car she as on, pointlessly dusting her pants. “We’ll bring our things with us.” He stepped off to go and retrieve their bags from inside the RV, with Carol and Andrea disappearing inside after him. She was probably still sour about having to be saved from a walker. She blamed Dale for that, too.

“I’ll give these to T-Dog,” Dale said as he looked down at the orange prescription drug bottle in his hand. “Thank you, Daryl.” Daryl just nodded his head, watching as Dale walked away. Jamie smiled softly as she stepped up to him, hooking her fingers into the front pockets of his pants and tugged him toward her.

“Daryl Dixon, saviour to the people,” she teased softly, leaning up to press a quick kiss against his lips. Daryl just hummed deep in his chest at her words, manoeuvring them around until he had her back pressed against the side of a truck. She slipped her arms up around his shoulders, keeping her head tipped back so that she could keep hold of their eye contact. “My hero.”

“Not quite sure ‘bout that,” Daryl drawled out, his hands moving to rest on her hips. The coarse material of her jeans was much more familiar than the uniform pants that she had been wearing until now, the clothes she’d taken from the truck the day before much more her style.

“You are,” she assured, tilting her head just slightly to the side as she reached up to ghost another kiss across his lips, tempting him. Daryl finally had enough of her evading as he pressed forward, pinning her down against the side of the truck and claiming her lips in a dominating kiss. She didn’t show any resistance, returning the kiss gladly as her hands rose to run up through his lengthening hair.

Her breath hitched in pain when his hands lifted to grab her sides, the press on her bruised flesh and sore ribs too much to hold back. Daryl pulled away quickly when he heard the pained sound, looking down at where his hand had slackened slightly. Guilt washed through her at the thought of ruining their moment because of her side, but Daryl just soothed his hand along her side gently to return to her hip.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, looking down at the ground next to their feet.

“Ain’t that my line?” Daryl asked as he leaned his cheek against hers, the stubble on his skin pricking her uncomfortably. The gesture, however, was too kind for her to pull away. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned more into the truck, pulling him down to lean heavily on her. The weight was reassuring, familiar. She was glad that there was still things that could remind her of their lives before the world had ended, things that could help her to feel safe and secure again.

“Be careful out here,” she whispered against his neck, closing her eyes to take in the woodsy smell that was clinging to him. “We’ve already lost Sophia, Carl’s been shot and T-Dog’s in danger. Can’t lose you, too, you’re the most important to me.”

“Guess I should be flattered,” he said into her hair, his breath ghosting along her neck as he spoke. “Don’t worry ‘bout me, Babe. I’ve gotten this far, haven’t I?” Jamie let out a breathy laugh as she nodded against his neck.

“Jamie!” Glenn called from the RV, holding her bag over his shoulder. “We should get going, it’s gunna be dark soon.” Jamie lifted a hand to show that she’d heard, but didn’t move from her spot as she held onto Daryl tighter. His arms wound around her waist in return, pressing her against him and away from the truck.

“I ain’t gunna be gone long, Angel. We’ll see each other again tomorrow mornin’,” Daryl assured, turning his head to press a kiss against her temple. They pulled away from one another slowly, Daryl’s arm falling into place over her shoulders as they walked over to Carol’s Cherokee. T-Dog had already slipped into the back and Glenn had taken up homage in the driver’s seat but had yet to start the truck.

“You’re just leaving him for the night, god,” Andrea said from the RV, looking irritated at the show of affection. Jamie glared over at her as Daryl tried to guide her over to the passenger door.

“If you had Amy back right now, would you be willing to let her out of your sight? Wouldn’t you want to hold her and never let go?” Andrea’s eyes widened and she looked stricken, as though Jamie had physically injured her. The blonde finally let herself be moved over to the passenger side and Daryl opened the door for her.

“Don’t give too much blood, I still need you to be able to at least walk tomorrow,” he said as he closed the door, the window left open and allowing him to lean in. Jamie laughed mockingly, getting a smirk from him as he nodded to Glenn before he backed away from the vehicle. Glenn quickly started the Cherokee up and reversed into a space left in the cars before turning around and headed down the highway that they had first come, to where the woman had said there was another road two miles up

“That was disgustingly sappy,” T-Dog said from the back, getting a cutting glare over the seat from Jamie that just made him chuckle dazedly.

Before long, they were pulling up outside of a tall white house, looking like something from an old movie and less like an actual farm house. Jamie and Glenn immediately piled out, their moods sobering at the thought of what was to come. They both carried guns with them, T-Dog still wrapped up in the blanket that Dale had given him from the RV. Jamie looked around for any sign of people; the only thing she could use to tell was that there was light coming from inside the house.

“Let’s just invite ourselves into this stranger’s house,” Jamie mumbled, only loud enough for the two men to hear her. “Not awkward at all.” Glenn tried not to laugh at her commentary as they began to walk toward the steps that led up onto the porch. The amusement of her words immediately died away when they saw the blood on the steps that must have been from Carl.

“So, do we ring the bell?” Glenn asked, unsure of what to do.

“We’re passed this kind of stuff, aren’t we?” T-Dog asked as he looked over at the Korean before he stepped up first, Jamie lingering behind him in case he keeled over. “Having to be considerate,” he continued, staggering a moment.

“You close the gate up the road when you drove in?” A female voice asked. Jamie jumped slightly and looked over to where the woman was sitting, the same woman who had rode in on horseback and taken Lori with her when she left.

“Uh, hi,” Glenn mumbled, looking started.

“Yea,” Jamie said, looking over at Glenn with a look that asked ‘what the fuck?’ Glenn tried to elaborate, mumbling on about when they’d first met. Jamie shook her head as she leaned on her arm against the post nearby, looking over to him in amusement as she wondered how long he was going to go on before someone stopped him—saved him.

“Look, we came to help,” T-Dog said finally, saving the Asian man.


	21. Me to You

"Hey," Glenn said in greeting as he stepped into the room that Carl was in. His heart dropped to his feet at the sight of the boy lying in the bed, as pale as snow. Rick didn't look much better and Lori seemed as though she were in shock. T-Dog stepped up behind him, looking through the room. There was a man taking Carl's blood pressure and another woman sitting near the door. "We brought someone that we think might be able to make things a bit easier."

Lori and Rick looked over to him, wondering what he meant. Jamie stepped around him and T-Dog then, her hands in the pockets of her jeans with a solemn look on her face. It was easy to tell that Rick had been giving blood by the look on his face and she really hoped that she would be able to help.

"You're an O- blood type," Lori said in understanding, realisation coming to her. The man on the bed looked over to where Jamie was standing, her posture showing just how unsure she was of the situation she was in. It was the first time that they had seen her look awkward in any situation.

"That's good, Rick can't give much more before he risks his own life," the man said evenly.

"Come on," Maggie said from the doorway, "I'll get y'all something to eat."

They were taken to the kitchen and given something to drink so that Maggie could make them each a sandwich, the silence that hung in the room was hard to stand. Jamie let T-Dog and Glenn receive their food first, waiting until last to get something to eat. She just leaned against the doorframe with a blank stare, wondering if she's be sitting where Rick was with Daryl in the bed.

**ᵻ**

"It ain't the mountains of Tibet," Daryl snapped as he watched the path in front of him and Andrea. "It's Georgia. She can be holed off in a farm house somewhere. People get lost, they survive; happens all the time," he explained, moving the flashlight about in several directions for any sign of movement; whether it be a walker or Sophia.

"She's only twelve," Andrea reminded, sound unbelieving.

"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost," Daryl said after a heartbeat. "Nine days, in the woods, eating barriers and wiping my ass with poison oak," he told, not noticing the look that came to Andrea's face as she tried to picture it.

"They found you?"

"My old man was off on some bender with a waitress, Merle was doing another stint in Juvie; didn't even know i's gone," Daryl explained, looking between Andrea and the woods around them. "I made my way back, though. Went straight into the kitchen 'n made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear," he said as he looked carefully through the trees on his right, where he was exposed to anything that came out. "Except my ass itched something awful."

Andrea snorted as she tried not to laugh, covering her mouth as Daryl turned to give her a look. "Sorry," she laughed softly, speaking into her hand. "I'm sorry, that is a terrible story." Even as she said this she still couldn't help laughing, causing Daryl to as well.

"Jamie laughed enough to bust a gut when I told her." Andrea sobered slightly at the mention of the other blonde, someone that she didn't truly understand. "The only difference _here_  is that Sophia's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage."

They walked in silence for a minute more before the curiosity and the need to know finally got the better of her. "How'd you and Jamie meet, anyway?" she asked softly, not chancing a look over at him. "I mean, you two don't exactly seem like the kind of people to get along, let alone  _date._ "

"We get that a lot, actually," Daryl admitted. "People see me and they think of this guy that just spends his days drinkin' and leering a women. They see Jamie and they think of a woman working in some high up office in the city. Truth is that I never really cared for women like Merle did. Guess I kind of got the impression that they would just ruin my life because of what I saw with my dad and brother. I met Jamie in high school, just a while before I dropped out."

"You guys went to high school together?" Andrea asked in disbelief, looking over to him doubtfully.

"Yea," Daryl encouraged, "She walked passed my place every morning on her way in, the exact same time every day. She had it timed out so that she got to the class just as the bell was ringing; drove her teachers insane." Daryl was grinning at the memory of the one time he had been to class early and had watched Jamie step through the door with the bell just beginning to scream throughout the halls, grinning to the teacher and  _skipping_  to her seat.

"Let me guess, she was the only person in school that was nice to you?"

"Nah, she was a bitch to me. But it wasn't in the way that all the other girls were, she only ever snapped at me when I did something first and even then she was always more amused than angry. I didn't understand her at all at the time. One day, Merle got put in the hospital because he got his teeth kicked in and I had to go drag his ass home." Daryl paused for a moment, as though he was trying to think of a way to tell the story properly. "She was there with her dad, visitin' her ma. I ran into her in the hallway when I was trying to find Merle's room, she'd been crying and her face was all red. I'd never seen her do anythin' but smile so it was weird.

"She said hi to me, even though she was crying and worried about her ma, the second she saw me she said hi and smiled. After that day we just started talkin', didn't fight no more when we saw each other."

Andrea paused a moment as she looked down at the path under her feet, wondering why Daryl was actually answering all her questions. "You were there when her parents died?"

"Yea, her mom died a week after her eighteenth birthday. She crawled through my window in the middle of the night after leaving her dad at home, her back wrapped in bandages, and asked if she could stay the night."

"That was when she got her tattoo," Andrea said, more to herself than as a question to Daryl. He stopped walking suddenly, turning to face Andrea. She was surprised at the abruptness of it, halting her own stride to look over at him.

"You need to lay off her, a'right? I know that you don't really like her because she gets a gun, and she didn't lose someone close to her, but the next time you get angry at her for still having me around think about the fact that within the span of a year, she lost her mom, her dad, her home and all of the money that she had saved up for college to pay for everything. She's had a hard fuckin' life, and she doesn't need it thrown in her face."

**ᵻ**

"Jamie!" Lori nearly screamed as she tore into the kitchen like the hounds of hell were at her heels. "Carl needs more blood, please," she gasped out, moving over to where Jamie was only halfway through her sandwich. She didn't need to ask twice before the blonde had dropped her food onto the plate, wiped her mouth and taken off toward the room that Carl was in.

Rick was standing at Carl's side when she walked in, only moving so that she could sit down as Hershel directed and placed her arm on the armrest of the chair, letting him press a needle into the exposed vein of her arm. She winced slightly once it was in, everything happening so fast that she barely even had time to tell herself to fist up her hand.

"Thank you, Jay," Rick said as he took a hold of her other hand for a moment, getting a nod of understanding in return before he moved back to his son, placing one hand on Carl's leg and hoping that he knew he was there. Hershel soon moved aside to let the blood take effect, watching as Jamie leaned back in the chair. At least now Rick was out of danger.

It didn't take long for the fatigue of giving blood to set in, the lack of proper food and nutrition going straight to Jamie's head as she sat in the chair next to Carl's bed. She sat there for a while, watching Carl's pale face, Lori's fearful one and Rick's equally pale and fearful one. She almost didn't want to let Hershel remove the needle when he started to, because she knew that it wasn't enough to save Carl's life.

"I can't thank you enough, Jamie," Lori said as she squeezed the younger woman's knee in one hand, no other words needed between them as Jamie smiled softly. It was the least she could do. Maggie came in with the sandwich that Jamie had been forced to leave behind and a glass of juice so she didn't pass out when she went to stand, letting her eat it at the bedside like she had with Rick.

A loud commotion woke her later into the night, asleep on the living room couch with her head at an odd angle, the sounds of rushed voices and people moving about. Jamie rolled her neck as she tried to work the kinks free and turned toward the doorway where Lori and Rick were walking by, worry colouring their features. Jamie stumbled her way over toward the door to the front porch of the house, moving out to where Lori and Rick were sitting on the front steps. T-Dog was sitting in the chair a couple feet away, his arm stitched and bandaged. She made her way over to him.

"What happened?"

"Shane came back," he answered as he motioned over to the blue truck that sat before the pathway, Shane leaning against the front of it as he sat on the dirt. "The guy that went with him didn't make it. Otis. They're in working on Carl right now."

"How's your arm?" she asked after a pregnant pause, looking down at the fresh bandages.

"Hurts like a bitch," he answered, causing her to grin softly. "They say it was the antibiotics that Dixon gave me that saved my life. Thank that redneck, asshole boyfriend of yours for me, a'right?" Jamie smiled softly as she looked out at the darkness that surrounded the house, the worry of walkers not as strong as any other time.

"Fiancé," she corrected softly, getting a look from the tall black man. She didn't say anything else on the matter and moved over to the railing around the porch, pulling herself up to sit on the wide wood and lean against one of the posts carefully, angling herself so that she wasn't leaning on her bruise.

The night felt surreal, as though it was a bad dream that they needed to wake up from. The peaceful surroundings of the house made everything feel calm, stuck in place; but when you peeled away the surface layers there are millions of problems moving around and twisting things into one huge knot. They'd only just lost Sophia—didn't even know if she was still alive—and then Carl got shot. The entire group was in disorder and they needed to pull themselves back together before everyone fell apart at the seams.

It seemed like they'd been sitting there forever, just thinking and sitting around—helpless—before Hershel finally stepped out into the porch. Everyone got to their feet at once, looking over to him.

"He seems to have stabilized," Hershel announced, gaining a collective sigh of relief. Rick looked ready to collapse in relief at the words, holding on to Lori's hand tightly. Jamie smiled at them, relieved to hear that Carl was going to be alright. He wasn't saved just yet, but now he had a much better chance of pulling through.

They all moved about the house into different areas, Lori and Rick spending the rest of the night with Carl, Jamie taking the couch in the living room. Shane got a bedroom since he was injured and they all felt that he deserved it after he'd risked his life for Carl. Some fell asleep, others stayed up all night, watching and waiting. Even though she was tired, Jamie couldn't get herself to fall back asleep that night. Her mind was on her parents, on her family, and on Daryl. She had only just started to doze when the sun was coming up.

Before long, the sun was in the sky and they were outside with the others, helping out in any way that they could. Shane continued to get odd looks whenever someone saw him, his shaved head bringing pause to each person. Jamie had been helping out with getting drinks for everyone when she was asked to give blood to Carl one last time, Rick still too drained to do it.

She spent a good hour that morning sitting at his bed side, speaking with Lori and Rick. They told Lori about when they'd first met, when they went into the city and got locked in the tank. The mood was light as they told stories, Jamie taking her turn to listen as they told her about Carl and all the things that he'd done. She moved out of the way so that they could sit with him while she drank the juice that Hershel handed to her.

"Thank you for helping save my boy," Lori said as she moved over to give Jamie a hug before she left the room, startling the blonde for a moment before she loosely returned the embrace.

"I'm sure that if the roles were reversed then you'd do the same," she replied softly, getting a small nod and smile from Lori. Jamie's attention shifted, however, when she heard the familiar rumbling of Merle's motorcycle. She turned quickly, the room rushing around her for a moment before she made her way through the halls of the home to get to the front door.

"Hold on, let me give you a hand," Rick said quickly as he moved over to her side, letting her rest an arm around his shoulders and lean on him. She thanked him quietly and let him guide her to the front door, Lori getting there just before them and holding it open. T-Dog and Glenn were already on the porch, looking to where the three vehicles had pulled up. They'd rigged up another car.

"Damn, Angel, I thought I said you'd need to be able to walk," Daryl said as he rose from the bike, shutting off the engine. Jamie smiled softly and pulled her arm from over Rick's shoulder, stepping down the few brick steps toward him. Daryl met her halfway when he saw her stumble, wrapping an arm round her waist to keep her up and getting a lazy smile.

"Shut up, I just gave blood."

"How is he?" Dale asked, looking to where Rick was standing with Lori at the mention of giving blood. There was only one person that would need it.

"He'll pull through," Lori answered for Rick, "Thanks to Jamie and Hershel and his people-"

"And Shane," Rick cut in, glancing back to where Shane was standing in a set of borrowed clothes. Jamie found it comical to see him in overalls. "We'd have lost Carl if it wasn't for him." She leaned against Daryl as their group came together again, giving hugs of support to Rick and Lori, listening as Rick explained very quickly what had happened in the forest. The accident.

Hershel announced that there was going to be a small ceremony for Otis and everyone assured that they were going to be there. Jamie was moving to go and sit down when she caught Andrea's eye from across the way, stopping to look at the strange emotions that were on the woman's face. After a moment, Andrea nodded to Jamie in a silent offering of peace between them. Jamie hesitated a second before she nodded back, wrapping an arm around Daryl's waist and letting him help her over to sit on the porch steps.

"So what happened at the highway?" Jamie asked once they'd sat down, seeing that he seemed different.

"Nothin' much. Carol was crying in the RV so Andrea and I walked the forest for a while to look for Sophia." Jamie knew right then that they had spoken about her and that was why Andrea wasn't glaring at her anymore. "Told her about when I got lost in the woods-" Jamie snorted in laughter before he could even finish the sentence, hiding her face in his shoulder to quiet the sound. "That was her reaction, too."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just wish I could have been there. Oh, if only I'd moved into town a couple 'a years sooner!" Jamie laughed, placing a hand on Daryl's head and petting him like he was a large dog. "That would have been something to see."

"You're laughin' now, but if I'd 'a known you then I would have been making you put that pink shit on my ass to stop the itchin'," Daryl snapped back, only making Jamie laugh harder. She soon became light headed, though, and had to force herself to stop. Daryl let her lean against him, his arm falling into place over her shoulders as they looked out that the vast, untouched land that Hershel owned.

_If there was one thing that Daryl Dixon hated more than his father, it was sitting in school. He would rather deal with his father and all of his beatings than sit through another second of pointless classes. What the hell did he care about quadratic relations, anyway? Not a fuckin' thing._

" _Mr. C looks pissed," the guy beside Daryl said, causing the dirty blonde haired man to look over at him. He didn't know the guy's name, didn't really care either way. "It's gotta be Jamie, she's not here yet."_

" _Class ain't started," Daryl mumbled out, looking over toward the door. It had become the highlight of the day for everyone in Mr. Coopers class to wait for Jamie to step in at the same time, just as the bell was ringing. She wasn't early, on time or late. The bell hadn't stopped ringing by the time she stepped through the door so the teachers couldn't do a thing about it. She couldn't be given detention with an entire class of witnesses saying that she was on time and her teachers were full 'a shit._

" _She's cutting it close this time," the guy continued, looking up at the clock that sat above the door. "Pro'ly 'cause it's so close to summer vacation."_

_Just as the long hand reached the twelve at the top of the rusted, yellowed clock, Jamie appeared in the door with a smile on her face, the teacher's face going red as he was forced to hold his breath to refrain from yelling at the 'innocent' woman. Daryl looked over to where the guy in the desk beside him was laughing, holding out his hand and receiving a high-five when Jamie Knight strode passed their row of desks to get to hers near the far window._

" _Miss. Knight-"_

" _She was on time, Mr. Cooper," several people in the class called out at the same time, getting a glare from the large man at the front of the class. Jamie leaned back in her seat, crossed her short short clad legs, leaned her right elbow on the back of the chair and looked at the teacher expectedly. Attitude._

" _Please, try to come to class prior to the bell," he finally bit out, getting snickers from the other students. Daryl began to wonder if Jamie did it just to see how long until smoke came out of Mr. C's ears. He glanced over at the blonde as she smiled up at the teacher._

_This was routine._

" _I'll do my best, sir," Jamie said with a mock salute of two fingers to her forehead, getting more snickering and snorting from the students. If looks could kill, she'd be burning alive in her seat at the moment. Daryl wondered if the math teacher was going to break another yard stick that was kept at the front by the board, like he had the previous month._

_Jamie was strange when it came to where she sat in the school 'clique' system. It was almost as though she were in the 'neutral' category. She hung around with the jocks and cheerleaders, got high enough grades that she could hold an easy conversation with one of the declared geeks of the school, she was on athletic teams and scholarly teams, she looked hot to teenage standards and showed it, but didn't come off as a bitch in the process. She had gotten suspended once for punching a guy in the face when he grabbed her ass, but other than that she'd never gotten in actual trouble with her teachers. Aside from royally pissing them off._ Discretely.

" _Fuckin' weird," Daryl grumbled to himself as he crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair and prepared to do nothing for the remainder of the seventy five minute class._


	22. Wings of Hope

_Twisting her body around awkwardly, Jamie tried to look over her shoulder while she kept her back to the mirror. The stretch of skin was painful from the still tender areas of her back, but she couldn't stop herself from really seeing the work._

" _Whoa!"_

_The male cry caused Jamie to screech and jump, diving for the shirt that was draped over the edge of her bed, looking over to see Daryl standing in the doorway, facing the wood with his face buried in his arm. Her lack of attire on her top probably wasn't what he'd been expecting to see._

" _Knock much?" Jamie snapped as she pulled on the jogging top, reaching for her sweater for good measure. It was still cold outside and the house was filled with a chill when the heater wasn't on. Daryl didn't say anything, didn't even move from where he was. He found himself trying to shake the image of her breasts from his mind but was failing miserably all the while. He didn't trust himself to turn around and not embarrass himself._

" _Sorry," He finally chocked out, getting an eye roll from Jamie, even though he could not see the movement._

_She looked over to him in confusion, wondering if he was actually being serious. Any other guy would have made some kind of crude joke about her 'tits' as they so disgustingly referred to them as, but Daryl looked more embarrassed than she had. Was he that shy?_

" _It's alright Daryl, it was an accident. You can turn around now, I'm decent."_

_The teenager looked over his shoulder hesitantly just to be sure, relieved to see that she was wearing both a shirt and a sweater. His mouth was uncomfortably dry and his hands were shaking, his eyes unable to meet her own. Of all the places that she had put her mirror it had to be across the room from her bedroom door. The second he walked in he could see a full view of her front, from the bareness of her torso down to the defined bones of her hips that showed above the waist of her jeans._

" _Are you alright?" She asked softly when he still didn't more from his place, something that was completely out of the ordinary. When he was over at her place he usually just walked in like he owned the place. This was new, different; strange._

" _I'm fine," He snapped defensively, causing her to smile. That was the Daryl she knew._

Assigned to rest, Jamie found herself lazing against a tree in boredom. Whenever she tried to offer assistance to  _anyone_  they would tell her that she needed to rest or risk passing out. Rick had given more blood than she had but he was still allowed to go off with Hershel to inspect the lands for where Sophia might be. Jamie could not deny that she felt her sex had a  _major_  part in their decision making. She was a female, she must be more frail than Rick was and therefore needed more rest. Technically, they could be even since she only gave two blood donations while he did three.

"I'm losing my mind over here," Jamie groaned loudly, knowing that no one could hear her. They had all scattered off in random directions a while ago and she really didn't feel like going about and taking a tally of where everyone was. Daryl had gone off on a hiking trip to see if he could find any sign of Sophia, or Sophia herself, and had forbade her to leave the immediate camp ground.

"You can help me if you'd like," Carol's soft, timid voice said from the right of the tree. Jamie flinched, startled, as she looked over to the other woman. Carol looked just as surprised as Jamie did, not expecting the younger woman's reaction to be of fright.

"Carol, I didn't know you were here. You startled me," Jamie admitted as her hand lifted to rest over her speeding heart. Carol smiled softly in understanding and nodded her head. "What's this you say about helping?"

"It's not much, but I was thinking of cleaning the RV," She started, looking down to the ground as her hands twisted in her shirt, fidgeting. "For when Sophia comes back. So she has a clean place to stay." Jamie's heart jumped in her chest at Carol's explanation and a smile touched her lips, her mood evening out to a more mellow tone so she didn't come off as over exuberant.

"I'd love to help; I'm sure Sophia will be happy."

Carol helped Jamie to her feet carefully, letting the blonde woman lean against the tree for a moment so she didn't trip over herself or get dizzy from moving about too quietly. She had been doing that all morning and Daryl had scolded her enough over it; she didn't need him to come back and see her with more bruises after he had told her to  _slow the fuck down._

"Alright, I'm good now. Where do you want to start?"

"Just sorting some things out right now," Carol started, moving toward the RV at a pace that was alright for Jamie. "Things are so cluttered it's almost impossible to find something." Carol stepped up into the mobile home first, moving over to the small hallway that led back to the designated bedroom and looking at the kitchen space. "Would you like to start here, first?"

"You tell me, you're in charge this time," Jamie replied as she leaned back so that she was half sitting and half leaning on the edge of the small table. "I am here to do as you wish." Carol smiled sheepishly as she looked away, not having the experience of another woman helping her out with any kind of a chore. It was new when she first came to the camp with Ed and the women all shared the chore, but even now she wasn't used to it.

"Let's clean out the clutter first so that we can wipe everything down before we start organizing," Carol suggested finally, looking back over to Jamie. The other woman nodded in agreement and opened the overhead cupboards, looking at the mess of dishes, utensils and odd nick-knacks that were not meant in a kitchen.

"Oi," She mumbled to herself before reaching up to take a couple of cups in each hand, moving them over to the table. Carol took a few in her hands as well and moved them to join the grouping that Jamie had placed down. They soon fell into a rhythm of moving things about, avoiding one another as best they could in the small space. Carol disappeared for a while to get a bucket of water while Jamie scrounged up some rags that they could use to clean things up.

Jamie was horrified at the amount of dead bugs and dust were pushed to the back of the cupboards, making her wonder if the dishes they'd been eating off of her actually  _clean._  She had moved over to start washing off the dishes when Carol arrived back, holding a large dish of water that looked to hold a small bit of soap in it as well.

They switched their places so that Carol was cleaning off the dishes as Jamie was wiping out the counter, stepping up to the doorway to shake the cloth free of dust bunnies and bug carcasses away from the RV. The cupboard passed by slowly, soon moving to the counter, the cabinets, the shelves and the small panty across from the bathroom. Carol went along with the cloth, wiping everything down until it shined. They had to change the water in the bucket three times with the amount of crap that came off the cloths they were using when they rinsed them out.

"I feel better sleeping in here now," Jamie commended as she looked around at the front area. They hadn't been able to start on the bedroom yet, or the bathroom for that matter, but the difference was immediately noticeable. It actually looked like a home, not just an RV. Somewhere the was actually a place to stay and not be disgusted to move around when you sleep.

"Should be turn over to the bedroom area now?" Carol asked as she looked over in the direction of the doorway. "Or do you want to do the bathroom?" Jamie winced at the thought of taking on the bathroom, knowing that there was sure to be walker blood hiding away somewhere from when Andrea had gone ape-shit on the one that had snuck in during the passing of the herd.

"Let's do the bedroom, save the best for last, right?"

Carol hid an amused smile at Jamie's sarcasm and moved down that way with their wash cloths.

"How are you feeling?" Carol asked after a couple of minutes, the two only just beginning to fold up the blankets that had been on the bed. They weren't really used in the heat of the summer anyway.

"I'm alright, nothing strenuous," Jamie said easily as she took two corners of one of the larger blankets and helped Carol to fold it. "No reason for Daryl to scold me." Carol smiled at the mention of the redneck, looking down at the floor.

"You two are sweet together," She commented as she took the blanket from Jamie and placed it on top of the pile that was growing on the chair. "He's much nicer to everyone now that you've come here. He used to avoid everyone and stick to his brother, but he seems to want you to be happy so he's trying," She explained, moving to fluff the pillows.

"The Daryl that you all first met isn't the Daryl that I know," Jamie replied quietly as she stopped for a moment to lean against the door frame. "He's just like every other younger sibling that's trying to impress their big brother or sister. Merle's always been there and Daryl learned how to act so he didn't get in trouble with him. I would see how he changed whenever Merle was around but I never called him on it. It's all about survival with him, even before the end of the world."

"How long have you two been together?"

Jamie paused for a moment to look off into space as she thought on the question. "Counting the two passed months, we've been taking for over three years. Although, that first year doesn't really count because neither of us actually knew  _how_  to date the other. It was our experimental year." Carol laughed softly, getting a beaming smile from Jamie in return.

"What was Daryl like as a teenager?" Carol asked after a heartbeat, peaking over at Jamie as the other woman adjusted the curtains, wiping the collected dust of them with her rag.

"Two different people," Jamie answered immediately. "Like I said, there was the 'home' Daryl and then there was the 'away' Daryl. He acted like a skittish animal whenever we were at his place, so we avoided there a lot when we were together. Mostly spent time at my house or around the neighbourhood." Jamie stood still as she smiled at the memory of something, getting a curious look from Carol in return. "Try and picture a teenage version of Daryl sitting in a homey yellow kitchen and calling my dad 'sir'."

Carol placed a hand over her mouth to mask the laugh that threatened to erupt, unable to accurately see Daryl Dixon as a teenager at all.

"' _Yes, sir. I understand, Sir. Of course, sir.'_ " Jamie said, holding a mock look of fear on her face as she repeated what Daryl must have said when they were teenagers. Carol only giggled harder as she turned away, placing the pillow she was holding to her face. "My mom pinched his cheeks when she saw him, that was hilarious."

"Oh, Lord," Carol gasped out as she traded the pillow with her hand, closing her eyes. Jamie decided that she had cheered the woman up enough and couldn't stop her smile growing at the joy that brightened Carol.

Carol sat, hours later, on the chair inside the bedroom of the RV, fixing a tear in one of the pillow cases with the small sewing set that she and Jamie had found in their gut of the mobile home. She looked over at the blonde at the thought, seeing that she was still sitting up on the bed but her head had fallen to the side to rest against the wall. She didn't snore in her sleep, but she made the odd noise that was between a moan and a word.

She paused in her sewing for a minute to watch Jamie, her long blond hair pulled back into a band at the base of her skull. Her skin was dirtied and dusted just as everyone else's, the odd patch were cleaned from when she had wiped her hand on her face unconsciously while they were cleaning and ended up wiping the soapy water on her skin to remove the dirt. Her body was angled so that she could faintly see her left tattoo—only just the top feather. She looked too thin for her body, her neck more slender than it should be and her arms missing any fat to show only the lean muscle beneath her skin. She thought back to when Daryl had called her his fiancé and wondered what the story behind it was. She didn't wear any kind of a ring, but that didn't always mean he hadn't proposed.

The door opened at the front of the RV a moment after she had resumed her sewing, drawing her attention to the man who had just stepped in. Daryl looked around the space with a surprised look crossing his features. He looked over the neat stacks of dishes on the counters, which were freshly washed, and the cleaned drapes and shelves. Carol averted her eyes back down to her sewing, glancing once over to Jamie. The sound hadn't woken her, not even alerted her.

Daryl was soon standing in the doorway, a piece of barley in his mouth as he chewed on the end.

"We cleaned up," Carol said softly, looking over to Jamie. Daryl's eyes shifted over to her as well, settling on her sleeping frame. She was awkwardly leaning back and to the side, probably hurting her neck and shoulders. She was leaning on her bruised side, too. "I wanted it to be nice for her."

He didn't need to even wonder who 'her' was.

"I didn't think I was in the right place," Daryl said in reply as he looked around himself again. Carol huffed a laugh before she resumed her work. She looked back up when she heard him set something down and was shocked to see an empty beer bottle, filled most likely with water, with a white flower inside.

"A flower?"

"It's a Cherokee Rose," Daryl explained, pulling the weed from his mouth as he motioned to it. Jamie shifted in her sleep at the sound of his voice, but still didn't wake up. Daryl kept his voice soft, whether to allow Jamie to sleep or because of the delicacy of the situation it wasn't clear. "The story is that when American Soldiers were moving Indians off their land, on a trail of tears the Cherokee mothers were grieving and crying so much 'cause they were losing their little ones along the way. Exposure, disease, starvation. A lot of them just disappeared. So the Elders, they said a prayer; asked for a sign to uplift the mother's spirits. Give 'em strength, hope.

"The next day, this rose, started to grow right where the mother's tears fell." Daryl stopped then, beginning to fidget with the barely in his hand as he looked over to Jamie for a moment, just to look away from Carol, before he glanced back at her again. "I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers blooming for my brother."

Carol took a moment to wipe at the tears on her face, trying to keep her head up high.

"But I believe this one," Daryl motioned down to the Cherokee Rose, "Is blooming for your little girl." Carol couldn't bring herself to say anything, only wiping away more tears as she bowed her head down and looked at the work in her hands. Daryl slipped into the small space once to carefully move Jamie until she wasn't leaning against the wall but was lying on her good side, her hand reaching for his in her sleep.

He looked down at Jamie's sleeping face for a moment, seeing that she had wiped at her face at some point and washed off some dirt.

"She keeps saying that she's fine, but I think she's more tired than she's willin' to admit," Carol said softly as she watched the pair in silence for only a moment. Daryl huffed a laugh and pulled back slowly, letting her hand fall back down onto the mattress. He paused once as he turned to leave, looking back at Carol.

"She's going to love it in here."

Daryl came back later that night as Carol was finishing helping with dinner, slipping into the RV when he noticed that Jamie was nowhere in sight. He spotted her curled up on her side, still fast asleep, on the bed in the back room. He moved over to sit gently on the edge of the small cot, looking down at her face. Her hair had begun to pull loose and had resulted with some falling into her face, the rest still held in the loose pony tail.

"Angel," Daryl whispered as he lowered a hand down to her hair, pushing aside the locks. She stirred at the touch, turning her face into it. "Time to get up, Angel. Or you won't eat tonight." She exhaled loudly, the same sign that she always had for when she was beginning to wake up. Daryl leaned down to press a kiss against her forehead, just as he had wanted to do earlier that day but felt he couldn't in front of Carol.

"Welcome back," she mumbled out as she felt the familiar stubble on her forehead and brow.

"Been back for a while, Angel, you've just been sleeping," Daryl teased lightly. When he pulled away Jamie's eyes were open, looking up at him tiredly. "Dinner's ready. Best get up if you plan on eatin'."

Jamie groaned softly and moved to pull herself up, getting a helping hand from Daryl as he moved off the bed so that she had more room to manoeuvre and could swing her legs off the bed. Her boots sat on the floor so that the bed didn't get dirty and her stained socks were visible.

"Carol let me sleep?"

"She thought you needed it," Daryl answered softly as he waited for her to pull on her boots. She soon had the laces all done up and sat up straight to stretch out her cramped back, moaning in pleasure when her spine cracked in several places. She rolled her shoulders once before she stood up carefully, making sure that the blood loss wasn't still eating at her.

"No poison oak today, right?" She teased, getting a fierce glare from Daryl that had her laughing. She leaned forward into him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing a kiss to his lips as she continued to giggle to herself. "I'm sorry, it was just too  _tempting_  to resist."

"I made Andrea throw up for laughing at that story," Daryl warned, but that just made Jamie laugh harder. He shook his head at her overtired ways and pulled her back up straight and moved toward the exit of the trailer, a giggling woman following after him more slowly. She paused, however, at the sight of the bloomed flower sitting on the counter by the door.

"Is that-"

"Thought she could use it," Daryl whispered to her, looking down at the flower. Jamie nodded her head before she leaned against him for a moment and looked down at the white flower. She had heard about the story from Daryl a while back, but she hadn't even thought about it for years. She soon smiled softly and pressed a kiss against the side of Daryl's neck, giving him a silent signal to move on. The others were already swarming around the fire that they had built, talking softly into the darkening night.

"Look who finally woke up," Shane said in greeting when Jamie moved over to them with Daryl at her side.

"Let's see how you'd react if I sucked two quarts of blood out of you," Jamie returned, getting a blank stare back from Shane that made Andrea snort in laughter. Jamie moved over to try and help Carol and Lori to serve, but Daryl pulled her over to sit down before she even had a chance. "Come on, I've been resting all day! I can hand out bowls without passing out!"

"Stay," Daryl ordered as he pointed at her, the dirt crusted on his hands making her grab his palms and draw them to her face to get a better look. She soon pushed them away from herself and pointed up at him in retaliation.

"Go wash your hands, ya brute!"


	23. Kill the Sound

Jamie woke up at the crack of dawn to the feel of Daryl's hand sliding down along the bruised side of her back, as gently as possible, with her shirt hiked all the way up over her shoulder blades. She sighed loudly at the soft feel of his skin sliding along her own, sending jolts along her skin. He must have realized that she was awake because his hand moved past the band of her sweatpants and gripped her ass suddenly, causing her to jump and smack his arm roughly.

"Stop that!" she hissed in mock irritation, hearing his chuckle through the semi-darkness and feeling his hand squeeze again. "Daryl!"

"What? You never complained before," he growled out in a husky voice, his breath hot against her ear. But he still removed his hand from the back of her pants and went back to tracing the lines of her tattoo. She had begun to fall back into sleep at the soft feel of his fingers tracing along her sore back when she heard him shift around, his warmth suddenly disappearing from beside her. She blinked tiredly, confused, before she felt the familiar trickle of his goatee against her back moments before his lips pressed against the top of her bruised shoulder.

She sighed contentedly as his hands ghosted along her sides, his fingertips dipping down into the hem of her pants again, this time sliding around to her hip bones. She held back a moan when his hands began to slide up along her stomach, ribs and ghosting the bottom of her breasts.

They hadn't been able to share a moment alone together since they were back at the CDC, and both were beginning to feel the effects. There was always walkers, camp members, little kids. Something had to be there for them to worry about, something to disrupt them and ruin whatever moment they were having.

Manoeuvring them around with ease, Jamie soon straddled Daryl's waist on the small mattress inside the equally small tent. She was glad that Daryl had set it up further away from all of the others, so that she didn't worry about them hearing. It wasn't as though any of the others were awake yet anyway. Even for police officers, the sun hadn't even moved over the horizon yet and there was no need to wake up.

Straightening up only so she could remove her shirt, Jamie immediately ducked back down to claim Daryl's lips, his arms moving around to splay out on her back but he was still careful with the pressure. Grinding herself down against him, it wasn't hard to hear Daryl's breath hitch in his throat as his fingers dug into her flesh the slightest bit. Her fingers traced a long scar along the top of his chest, another smaller one further to the left. He shivered against the touch, unable to control the motion at the feel of her hands.

The could both agree,  _best way to wake up._

_Ever._

ᵻ

Jamie tugged on the thick laces of her boots as she prepared to leave the tent, having assured Daryl that she would meet up with him at the truck the others met by. She had already warned him that there was no way in hell she was sitting another day out and she was going to give the same shtick to Rick if he tried to talk her down as well. Daryl had given up pretty fast when she told him that if she wasn't good enough to look for Sophia, she wasn't good enough to have any more sex.

Although, she would have to think of another tactic with Rick.

She offered a wave to Carol and Lori as she was passing them, getting waves in return in a loud 'be careful' from Carol. She made her way over toward where she could see the men, and Andrea, crowding together around the hood of the truck.

"Whoever slept in the cupboard was only about yay high," Daryl was saying as he held his hand to just above his waist. The kid that was with Hershel was there as well, standing between Rick and Andrea. He looked shocked to see her there, doing a double take.

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again," Rick said as he looked down at the map. There were markers that showed where Daryl had found evidence of someone sleeping at a farmhouse, as well as where Rick had left her while he distracted the walkers.

Jamie stepped up to Daryl as he was buttoning his shirt, meeting him with a kiss quickly before she moved over to get her rifle from Dale.

"Jamie and I are gunna borrow a horse and head up to this ridge right here, get a bird's eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there I'll spot her," Daryl explained to the group, motioning over to Jamie as she aimed the rifle away from them and tested the scope, making sure that it worked well before she took it with her out into the woods.

"Good, maybe you'll see your Chupacabra," T-Dog said mocked as he looked over to him, almost seemingly serious. Jamie gave him a warning look over Daryl's shoulder.

"Chupacabra?" Ricked asked, looking between T-Dog and Daryl. Jamie sighed and she turned away again to adjust the strap on the rifle, trying not to think of it. She wasn't sure whether or not she should believe Daryl's story that he had seen a Chupacabra, since he was higher than a kite when he'd gotten back and was rather incoherent when he was telling the story. It very well could have been real but it also could have been Daryl tripping out on mushrooms.

"You haven't heard this?" Dale asked curiously, "First night in camp Daryl tells us how this whole thing reminds him of the time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra." The tone of his voice told that he truly didn't believe what Daryl had told them, but none of them really knew the truth.

The guys laughed at the story, getting a look from Daryl. "What are you bringing at, Jackass?" He demanded in irritation, feeing Jamie's hand on his back.

"So you believe in a blood sucking dog?" Rick asked calmly, looking Daryl eyes.

"You believe in dead people walking around?" he countered, leaving the men silent. No one said anything until Jimmy reached for the one of the guns that Dale had laid out on the map, Rick quickly stepping in and taking it from him. Jamie could see him looking at her with her own gun and couldn't help but be reminded about Andrea.

"Well if I'm going out I want one," he said in defence, looking up at the man.

Jamie laughed loudly at his wording, getting ready to leave as Daryl shouldered his bow. "And people in hell want slurpies!"

"Come on, Angel," Daryl ordered as he smacked her on the ass, getting her to jump forward as she glared back at him briefly in mock anger before marching off toward the stables.

She patted Jimmy on the back as she and Daryl made their way past, still laughing slightly. Daryl headed straight for the stables that held the horses, letting Jamie help him saddle one up quickly. He took the female that seemed the most even tempered, letting Jamie hold onto her halter while he pulled on the saddle.

"I packed some of the dried food for us to take, it's all sealed so it won't attract anything with the smell," Jamie explained as she flipped the reigns over the mares head as Daryl positioned himself on the saddle. The small bag that was tied to the horse's saddle was barely enough to be considered a purse, so Daryl briefly wondered how she fit enough food for the both of them before he remembered that she was frighteningly good at packing things. She had been able to fit a weeks' worth of things into a backpack once. He had seen the piles on her bed before she put them inside the bag; it was frightening to think of what she must have done.

He offered her a hand to take, allowing her to use his hand to pull herself up onto the saddle, one foot in the stirrup for added assistance. She swung a leg over the horse, the disturbing memory of when she had been with Rick leaving her with a twist in her gut that she was forced to shake away. She removed her foot from the stirrup once she was in place and let Daryl place his back inside.

"All set," she said from behind him as she adjusted herself one last time, her thighs pressed tight against his. Daryl made a clicking noise with his tongue as he lightly dug his heels into the back sides of the large beast. She moved into a steady walk from the barn, her hooves making loud clacking noises on the ground. Jamie's hands took hold of Daryl's sides when her body was jolting back lazily, her hips moving in the rhythm with his as the horse walked.

"You're doin' that on purpose," he accused in a husky tone as he looked back at her over his shoulder, getting a smirk in return.

"Nope, that's just erotic coincidence," She countered, leaning forward to whisper it in his ear as her hands slipped down toward his hips. In retaliation Daryl spurred the horse onward, pushing her into a trot. Jamie gasped in surprise and clutched at his sides so that she wasn't thrown off the saddle, her hands bunching in the shirt that he had decided to wear. "Bastard!" She cussed at him in a hiss, only getting a chuckle in return as he was forced to slow the mare when they reached the forest.

They didn't speak much as they made their way through the forest, the sun peeking through the leaves and over brush in small patches. Daryl kept his crossbow out as they were riding, shooting squirrels whenever he had the chance. He didn't even get off the horse to collect them, just plucked them up from the trees, picking them off his arrow and handing them back to Jamie so that she could secure them.

"This ridge shouldn't be too far off," she mumbled offhandedly as she looked around the thick area of trees, noting that the sun had moved a fair bit through the sky since they had first set out.

"Whoa," Daryl ordered in a murmur, pulling on the reigns to stop the horse's forward momentum. Jamie turned to look at what had caught his attention, examining the river that was to their left. She squinted her eyes to see through the sunlight and trees and catch sight of what he had stopped for, looking along a fallen tree.

"A doll," she mumbled to herself.

"Might be Sophia's. I'm 'a go down and get it, you stay here with the horse," Daryl ordered as he carefully manoeuvred himself off the saddle without Jamie needing to dismount. She slid forward on the saddle and took the reins in her hands, keeping the mare steady as Daryl began a descent down the hillside. It was steep, but there were plenty of rocks, roots and fallen trees that he was able to use as his footholds. She couldn't help the nerves that erupted when she saw him pull the crossbow off his shoulders, just encase.

He stopped only to pick up the doll and look around the immediate area.

"Sophia!" He called out, causing Jamie to realize that the doll was indeed hers. No call came back to him, no stirring in the bushes to show that there was another person around. Her head fell down to look at the back of the horse's neck, her hands pulling the reins when the large animal moved beneath her. Daryl made back up the hill steadily, the doll tucked into the back of his belt.

"Nothing else down there?" She asked faintly when he got to the top of the hill.

"Bugs," he answered back, his tone losing any note of calm that there had been before. Jamie sighed softly and moved back in the saddle once more, letting Daryl pull himself back up. She ducked down so that he could swing his leg over, water spraying her as it fell off his pants and boots. They didn't linger for a long time, only enough to inspect their surroundings briefly.

Jamie adjusted the strap of her rifle as Daryl carefully guided the horse up along the makeshift path up the hill and around the creek. They both ducked to the side to avoid getting hit in the face by tree branches, Jamie's gun snagging on one briefly. She shifted the gun around so that the strap crossed over her chest, letting the gun tilt to the side and allow her to sit up without worrying about more tree branches.

"Just do a wide search around the area for now?" Jamie asked after a couple of minutes, looking to the back of Daryl's head briefly before she returned her attention to the side that she was supposed to be watching.

"Yea, we'll head back before sunset," Daryl replied after a minute, sounding far less agitated than he had when he gotten back from the creek. A small flock of birds burst out from the trees beside them, starting the horse. Daryl quickly righted her with a couple of tugs on the reins, looking off at the birds. "Easy now."

Shifting in the saddle, Jamie tried to place herself in a more comfortable position behind Daryl without needing to use the stirrups to do it. It was fairly amusing to hear Daryl make kissing noises as he nudged the mare forward again, assured that there wasn't going to be anything else jumping out of the bush. She didn't let him know that, however. She sighed against the back of his neck as she tried to look through the trees, the mass amounts of leaves, trees and bushes making it hard to see much of anything.

Daryl had always had a better eye for those things than she did.

He felt when she breathed heavily on the back of his neck, fully aware that sighting things wasn't her forté. She was amazing at hearing things, especially when it was a person out in the wilderness because of the change in sounds. Sight, however; she preferred the close up schematics of a building.

The mare suddenly neighed loudly beneath them, her front hooves raising off the ground and kicking harshly. Jamie gasped in surprise behind Daryl as she moved to clutch as his shirt, attempting to find something to hold onto. Daryl tried to get her under control, but she continued to jump and buck wildly. Jamie let out a short scream, her body disappearing from behind him. Daryl let his mind leave from the task of the horse to her, resulting in losing his grip and getting thrown off as well.

The landing was hard, his shoulder slamming onto his crossbow and several sticks jabbing into his back and legs. The decline of the hill they were following was too close and he began a harsh roll through trees, rocks and dead sticks toward the water below. He tried to keep track of where he was, but the world spun around him at such a pace that he couldn't tell when he was looking at the tops of trees or the bushes at the base. A ripping pain exploded in his side as he rolled over a fallen tree, tearing the breath from his lungs.

He could have sworn he saw the pale blue of Jamie's shirt for a split second before he hit a flat span of rock. He skid his way along the wet surface on his stomach before rolling at the base, into the water of the creek. It wasn't deep where he'd landed, allowing him to lie on his back without his head falling under.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed loudly as his hand sought out the pain in his side, coming in contact with something long, pointed and very familiar. One of the bolts from his crossbow had come free and tore through his side, the feathered end sticking out the back of his left side. The water was turning red around him as blood poured from the wound, the cool water doing nothing to quell the ache.

He pulled himself up just enough to look down at the arrow, seeing how much it had pushed through. There were definitely more showing through the front than there would be in the back. It would hurt like a bitch to pull out, so he'd much rather leave it in at the moment.

"Jamie!" he yelled, letting his head fall back into the water. When he got no answer he felt his stomach twist into a painful knot and his heart to throb in his chest. He pulled his head up again, looking around. "Jamie!" No reply. Looking up at the rocks that he had slid down, his eyes searched the trees that were just above it, where he could have sworn he'd seen her.

There was still no sign of her.

"Fuck!" he cursed, pulling himself up slowly. The agony in his side nearly made him pause, but there was the chance that she could be somewhere unconscious, drowning, and he refused to let that happen. He didn't rise to his feet fully, letting his body rest as he made his way away from the rocks, remaining in the shade, and moved in the direction of the shore that he'd found Sophia's doll.

He only paused once when he caught sight of something blue through the trees, just faintly. He groaned in pain when his body screamed in protest as he pushed himself through the waters to get a better view. He nearly collapsed when he saw the familiar jeans that Jamie had found, one of her knees hooked over a tree to hold up her body and prevent it from continuing the fall down the hill. He did collapse, however, when he saw that her gun had gotten caught on a tree and the strap had tightened around her neck and arm.

"Jamie!"

It didn't look like the strap had cut off her air, since it was wrapped around the back of her neck, but there was still the chance that her legs could slip and proceed with wrapping completely around her neck. Her arm had mostly slipped free, only halfway up her forearm still hanging over the band of the rifle.

There was no way that he could get to her.

"Fuck!" He screamed into the water as he fell onto one of his arms, his forehead dipping into the water for a moment. Even if he hadn't been skewered with one of his own arrows, there wasn't a clear path to get to where she was. If there was ever a way to get down to where she'd been stopped it would be with a rope wrapped around his waist and tied to a thick, sturdy tree.

He'd be fuckin' lucky if he got  _himself_ out alive.


	24. Illusions

Using the stick that he had picked up from the debris around the fallen tree, Daryl fished his way through the deeper water of the creek in search of his missing crossbow. He kept an ear out for anymore movement in the area surrounding him, looking up to make sure that Jamie's body hadn't moved from its place. He didn't even know if she was alive. If she was, she was definitely unconscious. The stick suddenly snagged on something foreign in the water, giving Daryl a chance to duck down and search with his hands to make sure that it was his crossbow. He soon stood back up straight with the weapon in his hand, relieved that it wouldn't be damaged by the water.

His head snapped up when he heard the sharp sound of a branch cracking, his eyes immediately searching out Jamie. The rifle had sifted in its position, turning at an angle when the small branch supporting it snapped. The rifle was still secured on the other side by a strong tree and a vein wrapped around the muzzle, her legs still draped over the other trees. Her arm had slipped free and left only her throat caught in the strap.

He would have to trust her to remain there until he got out of the creek.

The original route that he had taken to get down and back up before wasn't an option, far too much core muscle needed that he couldn't risk. The arrow through his side made it hard enough to move, but to overwork his stomach would pull at the wound and tear it further. Even with the scraps of the sleeves of his shirt that he'd used to wrap the arrow, it moved too much.

He made it quite a couple of yards up the cliff side before he gave up on using the stick he'd found, finding it only to be one more thing to worry about. He let it slide back down along the dirt trail he'd made, toward the water once again. He couldn't see Jamie from where he was, but he hoped and prayed more than he had since he'd found her that she was still up in the trees and not in the water. If she fell she was going right into the deep end of the creek.

His only problem now; the dirt was too soft for him to grab onto, crumbling away onto the ground whenever he tried to pull himself up.

"Come on," he growled out to himself. "You've done half; stop bein' such a pussy." Taking a deep breath, he tried to use his legs to propel himself upward to get to the next ledge of dirt but it slid away beneath his feet, nothing more for him to hold on to and resulted with him stepping back into his previous place. The ground beneath him couldn't take the added pressure of him having to jump back and fell away, his hands not fast enough to grab hold of something.

Blackout.

" _Come on, baby, wake up now," Jamie whispered as she tapped at Daryl's face, smacking his cheeks lightly. "No time to sleep, babe, wakey wakey." Daryl huffed in pain as he looked up to where she was. Her blonde hair was in perfect place, not a smudge of dirt along her skin. Her eyes danced with happiness when she saw him awake. "There you are."_

" _You're a'right," he mumbled out, glad to see that she wasn't hurt from her fall. She smiled at his words as her hand stroked his cheek, before moving up to wipe off some blood that had collected at his temple._

" _Can't say the same for you," she answered back with a faint smile, "Poor baby took a nasty fall, huh?" Daryl marvelled at the feel of her soft hands on his face, fighting away the pain from where his head had cracked off the rocks on his second tumble down the hill. "The day really didn't turn out the way we'd thought, huh?"_

" _Good morning," he mumbled groggily, looking down at Jamie's lap when he felt too tired to keep his eyes open. Not a speck of dirt, flawless._

" _Yea, it was a good morning," she agreed softly, leaning forward to press a kiss to his forehead. "You've got to get up now, Daryl. Can't stay lying around all day. You need to get that doll back to the others, Carol's gotta be missing Sophia so much."_

_Her voice faded out, the touch of her hands on his face, her lips on his forehead, disappearing as the darkness consumed him again. He almost didn't want to open his eyes, but he didn't want to lose her, either. He couldn't let her disappear. But as he fought to open his eyes again, it was not Jamie's face that greeted him._

" _Why dontcha pull that arrow out, dummy?" Merle asked as he looked own at Daryl with blue eyes, slightly darker than his own. "You could bind your wound better." Daryl let out a short laugh at the sight of his older brother, almost forgetting what it was like to have the weird ass, brute around all the time._

" _Merle."_

" _What's goin' on here? You takin' a siesta or somethin'?"_

" _Shitty day, bro," Daryl replied tiredly, thinking back to when he had first woken up, Jamie pressed against his chest and her skin too irresistible not to touch; Jamie nearly choked by the strap of her rifle._

_Merle laughed with mock sympathy._

" _Like me to get you a pillow?" he asked, grinning down at the younger Dixon. "Maybe rub your feet?"_

" _Screw you," Daryl groaned out in retaliation._

" _Mm-mm, you're the one screwed from the looks of it. Thoroughly, little bro. How's that nice piece a' ass treatin you? Little Jay-Jay, fuckin' up all those years I spent tryin' ta make a man of you. This is all I get? Look atcha, lying in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here, little brother." Merle laughed down at him, his voice harsh and his words like nails to his skin. "And for what?"_

" _Girl," he answered back, "They lost a little girl."_

" _So you got a thing for little girls now?" Merle asked, sparking anger inside of Daryl. "Looks like your little Blue Jay's second best now!"_

" _Shut up."_

"' _Cause I noticed you ain't out lookin' for old Merle no more," Merle said from above him, looking thoroughly irritated._

" _Tried like hell to find you, bro," Daryl countered, closing his eyes for a minute. What else could he have expected, meeting up with his brother again? Definitely not the same sentiment that he had gotten from Jamie when he'd found her. Wouldn't have fuckin' wanted that kind of sentiment form Merle._

" _Like hell ya did, you split man. Lit out first chance you got. Your little fuck toy's back, no need for Merle to stick around."_

" _You lit out!" Daryl growled out. "She ain't no toy. 'S why she hates ya, bro," Daryl said more calmly, his voice scratchy and weak. "Treat her like she's nothin', get what you give. All you had to do was wait, we went back for you. Rick and I, we did right by him."_

" _This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand?" Merle asked as he looked down at him, getting Daryl's attention to turn toward the remaining_ two _hands. He still had both, fully intact. "That who we talkin' about here? You his bitch now?"_

" _I ain't nobody's bitch!"_

" _You're Jay-Jay's bitch, baby brother. Pussy whipped, that's what you are. Playin' errand boy to a bunch 'a pansy asses, niggers and democrats." Merle laughed in amusement to his own words, probably picturing it in his mind. "You're nothin' but a freak to them! Redneck trash, that's all you are."_

_Daryl thought back to when he and Jamie had been talking outside her office one day, some of her coworkers snickering at the sight of them. Daryl had heard them call him trash, so had she. She's blown up on them later that day, getting suspended without pay for a week because of it. Lucky she hadn't been fired._

" _They're laughing at ya behind yer back, you know that, dontcha? I got some news for you, son, one of these days they're gunna scrape you off their heel like yous was dog shit." Daryl's eyes began to fall closed, Merle's words leaving a cold that crept up from his gut. "Hey," Merle snapped when he saw Daryl's eyes fall closed, smacking at his chest. "They ain't yer kin. Your blood." The cold creeping in him turned to anger when his brother told him to go back to camp and shoot Rick, the man that had helped him to save Jamie. Helped keep her safe when he wasn't there._

" _Now you listen to me," Merle said as he took hold of Daryl's face in a rough grip, contrasting fiercely with Jamie's soft hands. "Ain't nobody gunna care about you but me, little brother."_

" _Lying little fucker's all you are," Jamie's voice said, drawing Daryl to look over to the water, seeing that she was standing in the creek, her boots submerged in the dirt shrouded stream. "Never did like that 'bout you. Brotherly to a fault, though."_

" _Jay-Jay," Merle purred, looking at her over his shoulder before redirecting his eyes down at Daryl. "Don't that pussy belong to you, little bro?"_

" _Definitely don't belong to you," Jamie said from behind them, her feet sloshing around inside the water as she approached. "Fucker. Don't deserve_ any.  _Lying off to him like that, people care more for him than you ever did."_

_Merle laughed deeply as he looked down at Daryl, Jamie coming to kneel next to Daryl's head. "Come on, before I have to kick your teeth in," the elder Dixon threatened as he moved back. Jamie's hands moved to brush across his skin again, brushing at the wet hair that stuck to his temples._

" _Wake up now, baby," she whispered as she leaned down, brushing some sand from his cheek. "Wake up."_

" _Let's go!" Merle yelled as he kicked at Daryl's leg. The fogginess began to clear from his brain, the feel of Jamie's hands on his face fading away. He tried to keep a hold of that feeling, of her, but she disappeared again. When he looked down at his feet, Merle was gone as well._

In his place, a walker bit at his boot. When Daryl moved, its attention turned up to him, the dead man's hands releasing his thick boot to move up to his leg. Daryl panicked, gasping for breath at the sudden sight. Jamie and Merle were gone, leaving him alone again. He kicked out with his other leg, knocking the walker away from him and letting him lunge for the Horton a couple of feet away.

Hands grasped at him again as he grabbed his knife instead, stabbing it into the side of the walker before punching the side of its head to try and get it off of him. He pushed the walker down to try and get better leverage to kill it, but its hand moved up to grab a fistful of his hair and was able to get him back down on the ground. He used the momentum to roll the walker off, throwing it a couple feet away.

A second was making its way toward them quickly, drawn forward by the commotion.

Using the time he had, Daryl leaned back slightly and gripped the arrow in his side, pulling it forward. He gasped in pain, holding back his cries, as the feathered end pulled through his flesh before springing free from the injury. He quickly grabbed the crossbow, struggled to pull back the taught string, took aim and fired off the only arrow that he had into the head of the walker just as it dove at him. The second continued to stumble up the path toward him, its pace quick at the smell of blood.

He moved to grab the arrow from the first walker's head, the only weapon that he had, when a gunshot cracked through the air. The black man fell back, his head snapping backward as the bullet lodged into his skull, left dead for good this time. Daryl gasped for air as he tried to comprehend what had happened before he quickly whipped around to face the source of the shot.

Jamie stood at the base of the waterfall of rocks, up to her waist in the creek water. Blood painted the entirely of the right side of her face from a deep gash at her forehead, her lips parted as she panted for air. The gun in her hands shook with the control she needed to keep the gun up to fire. Her throat was red from blood, a raw line created from the strap. Unlike he had seen while he'd been unconscious, her hair was a mess, caked with blood and tangled with leaves and twigs, and her clothes were wet, muddy, blood splattered and torn.

She lowered the gun and stumbled in his direction, the water rippling around her. Daryl groaned in pain as he pulled himself quickly to his feet, moving into the water without hesitation and headed straight for her. Neither had the strength to keep themselves up when they finally reached each other, falling into the water as they gave the other a one armed embrace, holding their respected weapons in their other hands and out of the water.

"I thought you were dead, lying there," she rasped out, her voice pained and rough.

"Could say the same for you, Angel." Daryl's hand moved to her throat, feeling the deep imprint on her neck from the strap, it would fade in time, but it probably hurt like a bitch. She stumbled further down into the water when her left leg gave out suddenly, blood pooling in the water around them. "No, come on. Up," he ordered in a tired voice, trying to keep her up without falling over as well.

"Fuck," she groaned in pain as she let him tug her back up and carefully manoeuvred the both of them away from the waters so that they could sit down. They both had several bruised areas, a gash on their heads—although, Jamie's was worse—and one lethal injury. Daryl's arrow wound was bleeding steadily and made moving difficult. Jamie's left leg was torn up around the knee and thigh from her trip down the hill before hitting a tree.

"You gotta stop that bleeding," Daryl husked out as he looked down toward her leg, which she was trying her hardest to stay off of. She looked down at the bloodied pants, the jeans she had come to love probably destroyed now. She glared down at the material for a moment before the tensing of her head caused her skull to pulse and throb in pain. "Take off your shirt."

"Daryl-"

"Angel, you'll bleed out. Ya got one of them damn sports bras on. Take off your shirt." Jamie huffed tiredly before she fell down to sit on one of the raised rocks around the creek, pulling her ruined blue shirt over her head. Her breath hitched in pain as her back and shoulder protested the motion but she soon finished removing the material and sat before Daryl in her black sports bra. She held still as Daryl look the shirt from her, tore at the hem until there were several strips that he could use, and placed the folded up material to the back of her thigh. She hissed in air through her teeth when he put pressure on the injury, probably with several rocks and sticks stuck in it.

She felt exposed out in the open air without her shirt on, the sunlight heating her shoulders and back. Daryl used the torn strips to tie the shirt onto her leg as tightly as he dared, knotting the strips at the outside of her thigh. She gasped in pain at the feeling, her fingers digging into the dirt and tearing more cuts into her hands.

"Enough," she finally gasped out, her hands reaching out to him. He took her hands before she could grab him, letting her calm down as the pain ebbed away slowly to a dull ache. They moved over to the shade to take care of Daryl's injury, Jamie's hands pressing the folded up material of his flannel shirt against the arrow wound while he tied that strips around his waist to secure the compress in place.

"Son of a bitch was right," he mumbled out to himself as he picked up his crossbow, missing the look that he received from his girlfriend as she hobbled up onto her feet, taking most of her weight on her good leg.

"Daryl, that climb-"

"Is gunna be a bitch," he interrupted fluently, looking over to her as he caught his balance. "But there ain't no other way up." She nodded her head in understanding, but when she looked up at the imposing height of the mountain that stood between them and surviving, she wasn't too sure if it was even worth it. Shaking her head sharply, she limped her way over to the log to retrieve her rifle.

"I was going to say," she started as she pulled the rifle strap up onto one shoulder, "that climb ain't got a thing on us." A smirk came to her lips as she looked over to him, even though her entire body screamed at her in denial. Daryl scoffed in amusement, shaking his head at her. She just turned away with her smirk still in place and limped her way over to where she was able to find a walking stick to help keep her supported. Her leg wouldn't be able to support her weight for too long.


	25. Nothing on Us

Jamie made sure that her bandaged leg was as secure as it could be before they started their climb up a fucking mountain. She probably should have accepted Daryl's offer to eat some of the Squirrel he had caught, but she also knew that there was a higher probability that she would only throw it up and what was left in her stomach in the first place. He could have it, she'd rather go hungry. Damn horse, taking all her food.

"That path's not big enough for us both, so who's going up first?" Jamie asked as she looked over to Daryl. She nearly had to do a double take at the look of him. He had blood all around his mouth, stuck in his goatee, and he was wearing a shoelace around his neck with the four ears from the walkers they had grounded.

He was looking back at her, his light blue eyes watching as he waited for a reaction. She had never really had a great trouble with blood, but he knew that she preferred to go without blood in places that it shouldn't be. She just cocked her head to the side slightly as she looked at him, squinting.

"Is it wrong that I find that kind 'a sexy?" she asked finally, causing him to smirk devilishly in response. It was true, too, that there was just something about the wild look of him that was a complete turn on. She found herself wanting to kiss him, even with the blood all over his lips. He was just  _that_  appealing when he looked all badass like he did at that moment.

"You're up," Daryl said challengingly, looking up along the hillside that they had to scale. Jay looked up along the path for the first bit to see how she'd get up the dirt side. It would be easier at the base, because it was nowhere near as steep as the top portion was. A glance up toward the sun told her that they had time before sunset, but it was best not to lag because of walkers.

Daryl was right behind her as she began to scale up the side of the mountain before them, using as many trees and roots as she could to pull herself upward instead of having to rely on the strength of her legs. She only had one good one and even that one wasn't in the best shape energy wise. Her hands scraped up because of the dirt and rocks but she really could have cared less at that moment. Her arm muscles didn't take long to get tired from constantly pulling herself upward and she soon fell forward on her forearms to rest.

"No way, you stop now you ain't gunna get moving again," Daryl growled out behind her before he pushing her up by her ass, throwing her into a forward momentum that got her going again.

"Now comes the hard part," she grumbled to herself as she looked up at the two ridges that were left to get over. There wasn't much to grab a hold of aside from dirt and even then it was soft dirt. Jamie huffed irritably as she lunged for the large tree root sticking out of the side of the steep ridge, gripping it with both hands and using her already tired arms to keep her up as her legs faltered for a moment when there was nowhere for them to take purchase.

She could hear Daryl grunt in pain behind her, trying to make a move over in the same direction that she had taken. Pulling hard with her arms, making them shake with the effort, she was able to get her feet up onto the ridge just below and push on her good leg to get herself high enough to grab hold on the vine wrapped around the base of the tree.

Daryl looked up to where she was, making sure her feet were in a good place and there wasn't a risk of her falling down as he had done. She looked like she had safe, but her shirt was soaked through on her leg completely because of the excessive use of her legs and her torso was covered in cuts, scrapes and dirt from lack of protection on her skin. The bruise on her back was turning yellow from the healing process, allowing her tattoo to become clearly visible again. He had to shake himself from his thoughts when he found that he was staring at her and not concentrating on getting up the hillside.

The loud screech of birds overhead turned his attention up through the trees, looking at the circling birds that were visible through an opening in the canopy of leaves.

" _Please don't feed the birds,"_  Merle's voice called suddenly, causing Daryl to look back over to where Jamie was struggling to pull herself over the final ridge to get back onto the path they had been taking. Merle stepped into view over the side of the hill, looking down at Daryl in amusement. He laughed in amusement as he looked between him and Jay. " _Well what's the matter, Darleena, that all you got in you?"_

Daryl ignored the voice of his brother, looking away from him and beginning to pull himself backward up the hill, using his arms to pull up. The trees and veins around him helped slightly, but he was still fighting against the tremendous throbbing in his side and the many sore muscles that covered his body.

" _Come on now, even Jay-Jay's better at this than you? Woo-wee, look at that girl go, no shirt on an' all exposed,"_ Merle mocked in amusement, crouching down to the side of where Jamie had stopped to take a breath and collect herself.

"I did better when yous was missin'," Daryl finally grumbled out, looking away from Merle again as rage burned away at his insides. Merle wasn't there…he knew that Merle wasn't there. He didn't notice the look that Jamie sent his way as she looked over her shoulder to him, her eyes filled with concern as she heard his words. She had a strong feeling that he wasn't talking to her.

" _Now come on, don't be like that, I'm on your side!"_

"Yea? Since when?"

_He's having a conversation with someone?_ she thought, watching as Daryl gripped at a vein to keep himself in place as he looked for a way to get up.  _He's hallucinating,_  she realized. She turned her attention back to the final ridge that she had to pull herself over, knowing that she needed to get him back to the camp as fast as she could. He clearly had knocked his head far harder than she'd thought he had.

" _Awe, hell, since the day you were born, baby brother_ ," Merle called down to Daryl, watched the younger man as he positioned himself carefully before pulling up quickly to get himself higher to the top. " _Somebody had to look after your worthless ass."_

"You never took care of me, you talk a big game but you's never there!" Daryl yelled from behind her, causing Jamie to pause for just a moment as she dug her foot down into the dirt and prepared to jump for it. The emotion in Daryl voice tore at her heart and she immediately knew who he was talking about. She immediately remembered when they were fixing themselves up and he'd said something about someone being right. Merle? He'd been hallucinating that Merle was there? When he was on the ground, he must have been dreaming that Merle was there as well.

"Come on," she mumbled to herself, tensing her tired arms to pull herself up at the same time she jumped.

"Hell, you ain't here now. Some things never change," Daryl continued below her, panting with exertion. There was a brief pause as he continued to slowly gain height, lessening the distance between them, before he spoke again. "I know what I saw!"

Jamie gritted her teeth, wishing there was something that she could do. She didn't even know what it was that he thought Merle was saying to him; the only way that she could be sure was to either ask him or if she could hear Merle, too. She wouldn't ask him, though, because she knew that it was between him and whatever he was struggling with about his brother.

"You best shut the hell up!"

With a short cry of pain, Jamie pushed on both her legs to get up to the top, a tearing pain ripping through her knee and thigh. Her knees struck on rocks and her arms were scraped up as she pulled herself up over the edge of the drop, using the ground to drag her body up and onto safe ground. She gasped in pain as she lay still for a moment, her hand lowering down to the dripping bandage on her knee. She'd bleed out at this rate.

" _Well come on a do it then, it you think you're man enough!"_ Merle mocked as he stood at the top of the ridge that Jamie had disappeared over, looking down at Daryl. " _Hey, kick off them god-dammned high heels and climb, son! That fine piece of ass can get up this pansie climb, what's stoppin' ya?"_ The mockery of Merle's laugh caused Daryl to shake his head, trying to shake away the sounds of his brother's voice. He didn't want to hear it. He refused to listen!

Merle was never there. He was always the one that watched his back, he never needed his brother. He'd grown up on his own, taught himself how to take all the shit from his father _and_ his brother! He wouldn't let Merle stand there and tell him how he'd worked so hard on makin' him a man; he was a man because of what he himself had become. If there was anyone out there that had helped him become who he was, it was Jamie.  _She_  had always been there.

" _Come on,"_ Merle said, holding his hand out for the younger sibling to take. " _Come on, little brother,"_  he encouraged, motioning him up further as he laughed. " _Grab your friend Rick's hand!"_

Daryl's hand shot out to grab his hand, trying to keep himself up as he moved. To his shock, he connected with flesh instead of Merle disappearing like before. When he looked up, his eyes didn't meet blue, but hazel. Jamie had one leg leant against the tree so she wasn't pulled back down, nails digging into the bark for added support as she took a firm hold on Daryl's hand with the other. Her face was caught in a determined look, set in her ways.

"I'm here," she assured before pulling on his hand, letting him use her to pull on in order to lift himself up. Her leg screamed in protest but she never once showed it as she used the last of her strength of pull him up, soon using both hands to help him. As soon as he had one knee up on the top of the hill, he was able to give that final push off the joint and lift the rest of his body out of the shadowed cliff side.

Both toppled to the ground together, Daryl landing harshly on Jamie's body as he fell in fatigue. Her arms embraced him with tired relief, her head resting against his. He stunk of sweat, blood and creek water but she couldn't bring herself to care as she held onto him, so relieved. Daryl looked over her shoulder as he loosely returned the embrace.

Merle had indeed disappeared again. And he doubted that he'd be coming back.

He pulled himself up enough so that he could look into her face, her eyes filled with her relief and showing how tired her was, with blood and dirt straining almost all of her tanned skin. She didn't show a single care, however, as he lifted her face up gently to press a kiss to her lips.

"Gotta get movin', Angel," Daryl whispered against his lips, feeling her nod even as she never pulled away from the kiss. Her arms tightened around him, pulling him closer. He pressed her down into the dirt as one of his hands slid around to the back of her neck to keep her in place, deepening the kiss further. He pulled away before long, knowing that they would need to get back before sunset.

"It's going to be a long walk back," Jay gasped out as Daryl looped one of her arms over his shoulder, letting her take some of her weight off her injured leg. Daryl looked down at the path that they could have to take, knowing that it was very true. It was going to be long, they were injured, and there was the chance of walkers.

One hell of day.

"That walk," he started, looking down at where she was resting her temple on her arm from where it draped over his shoulder, "ain't got nothin' on us." She smirked as he repeated what she had said before nodding in agreement and taking the first step. Pain rippled through her body with each movement, but she knew that it would only get worse over time if she stayed to rest. She'd soon be too bad to walk at all.

They kept an eye on the sun, making sure that they stuck to a good pace through the woods so that they didn't get caught out at night. Jamie stumbled constantly, but Daryl was always there to keep her up and pull her forward again when she just wanted to sit down and rest. He pressed forward with a determined stride that didn't waver. He had to get back to that camp.

He would count off all the reasons in his head as he took each step, just to keep himself moving.

Jamie's leg would get infected or she might bleed out. She also had a concussion that could be very severe. He needed to get back to the others with the news on Sophia and her doll. Daryl would be damned if he let Shane take the satisfaction of him dying. He couldn't let Merle be right; he would not die before his older brother did.

Jamie stumbled again, this time too much to recover, and fell to the ground. She hissed in pain as her arms were scraped up. Daryl moved over to get her back on her feet, but was left surprised when she pulled herself back onto her feet on her own, her legs shaking but able to hold herself up. She had pulled her hair back and out of the way, exposing the nasty gash on her forehead. The bared skin of her midsection was coated in red lines from where she'd been caught with sticks and rocks from the climb. However, she had gotten back up on her own.

"I'm gunna kill that fuckin' horse," she finally gasped out as she met his eyes. Daryl let a tired grin reach his lips before he wrapped an arm around her waist and got them moving again.

He wouldn't let Jamie die like this.

When Daryl finally saw the familiar tree line that led into the field to the side of Hershel's farm house, Jamie was nearly stumbling every other step. Her entire left leg was covered in blood, the once blue denim left with a full stain of crimson. His hand gripped the back of her belt and pulled hard when she nearly fell again, keeping her on her feet nearly painfully.

"Almost there, Angel, come on now. Don't give up on me now," Daryl mumbled, beginning to repeat it over and over to encourage her to keep moving. The amount of blood that she'd lost was going straight to her head and she could barely even see properly anymore. They sun struck them as it moved to the farmhouse, nearly out of view as it was close to disappearing behind the trees. Jay stumbled again, nearly going down to one knee before Daryl was able to haul her back onto her feet.

He wasn't so sure she'd be able to pick herself up again this time.

"Who's that," she suddenly mumbled out, seeing people rushing through the field toward them. Daryl panted heavily as he looked over in the direction the four were coming from. Shane, T-Dog, Glenn and Rick were moving through the tall grass of the field at a jog toward them. Must have been a sight for sure; all four were carrying weapons. He looked at Shane's pickaxe with hatred, knowing that the fucker'd use it, too.

Jamie's eyes were unfocused, but she didn't miss when Rick stopped a couple yards from them and held up his gun, pointing straight for Daryl's head. He thought they were walkers? She supposed that it wasn't really a surprise, how the both of them looked and all.

"Oh my god, is that Jamie and Daryl?" Glenn asked first as he noticed them leaning heavily on one another.

"That's the third time that you pointed that thing at my head," Daryl finally growled out, his voice rough and scratchy. "You gunna pull the trigger, or what?" he challenged, watching as Rick lowered the gun and the other three men relaxed. Jamie looked over to Daryl's face, seeing the amount of blood that still covered it from before the climb. Perhaps she should have had him wash his face.

There was a familiar cracking sound a moment before Daryl fell away from her side, leaving Jamie in shock for a millisecond as she stood alone before her legs gave out at the same time she dove down for him, his name leaving her abused throat in a rough scream. Her heart jumped in her chest and began to race at a pace it had never met before, her hands moving to look over his face for any sign of a bullet hole. Fresh blood covered the left side of his head, the side opposite that she had been standing, where there was a long line from a bullet graze.

"No!" Rick was shouting out hysterically in the background of her attention, to whoever had fired the shot.

"Baby, baby, open your eyes," Jamie gasped out as she leaning against his good side and on his chest, too tired to stay on her knees.

"I's kidding," he finally slurred out after a moment, causing her to gasp in tears and press her cheek against his right one, away from the fresh injury. Tears slipped from her eyes in relief, her stomach relaxing from the nauseatingly tensed feeling that it had been in before. He went limp in her hold, passed out from the near deadly shot to his head.

Who had fired off that shot?

"Come on, Jamie, we need to get him inside," Rick explained carefully as he took hold of her arms and pried her away from the male on the ground. A new energy came to her as she looked over to see Andrea and Dale rushing over to them. The only other two that could have taken that shot.

Andrea was the one asking in hysterical panic if someone was dead.

She lunged toward the other woman with a feral scream, her hands reaching for her throat. Hands held her back, stopping her from getting to her desired target so she could choke the life out of her. She tried to fight, she tried as hard as her weak body could. Black rage boiled in her blood like fire, curling and burning her from the inside out.

"You bitch! You  _stupid fuckin' bitch_! You  _shot_  him! I'm going to  _kill_  you!" Rick held back the enraged woman, surprised at the strength she was still able to exude, even though she'd been leaning heavily on Daryl less than a minute before.

"Jamie, calm down! He's alive!" Rick yelled as he forced her to the ground, holding her on her side as she tried to kick out. "He's alive!" She gradually stilled beneath him as tears coursed down her face, leaving cleared tracks through the gore that covered her skin. Her body shook with sobs as she finally stopped fighting, letting her head fall back onto the ground as she gave up.

"T-Dog, help Shane with Daryl. And for Christ sake, someone get rid of the ears around his neck," Rick ordered from above Jamie, his hands still holding onto her arms gently as she quivered. T-Dog pulled the shoelace from around Daryl's neck and tossed it back the way that Daryl had come, letting them fall hidden in the long grass.

Jamie fell still under his hold suddenly and drew his attention down to her. Her head had fallen to the side, unconscious.

Glenn had the rifle and crossbow that had fallen when Daryl was shot, following after the others. Andrea looked petrified at the reaction that had been drawn from the other blonde, standing back as Dale tried to comfort her, reassuring her that she was only concerned about Daryl and she'd be alright after she rested and was assured he was okay.

Rick carefully picked the woman up in his arms, the blood from her leg coating his hand and arm quickly when he hooked his right hand under her knees. Her head rested on his shoulder, her blood smearing onto his uniform shirt. Her arm hung limp over his arm as he walked. If the recovery from the blood she's given last time annoyed her, she'd be pissed at the time she was to spend on bed rest this time around.

"Guys," T-Dog said suddenly stopping him and Shane's movement when he felt something bumping against his leg. He pulled something out from Daryl's belt, raising it up for everyone else to see. "Isn't this Sophia's?" Rick turned to look what he was talking about, feeling a lurch in his stomach at the sight of the doll, stained and battered from the elements.

"Let's get them inside," Rick called out, "we'll have to wait for them to wake up before we can ask them what happened."

Lori and Carol recoiled in shock at the sight of the two when Rick first stepped up with Jamie in his arms, rather worrying that she was as light as a feather. She was nearly unrecognizable with the amount of blood and dirt that covered her body, wearing only a sports bra on her upper body. The two women quickly agreed to help with undressing her so that her injuries could be treated. Carol took off to her and Daryl's tent to get them a change of clothing while Lori followed Rick and Hershel.

"Put her in the room down the hall next to your boy," he ordered Rick when they were in the house, motioning for the hallway before he turned his attention to T-Dog and Shane and had them put Daryl in the room close to the dining room. Maggie laid out a sheet over the comforter to keep the blood and dirt away from where she's be resting once she was treated.

"We've got her," Lori assured Rick as soon as he'd put her down. He looked down at the gash on Jay's forehead with concern before he nodded his head and pressed a kiss to Lori's temple before he moved from the room. Maggie used a set of scissors to cut off the bandage Daryl had done on her leg before doing so with the area around the injury.

"She doesn't have any other pants, best to salvage these if we can," Lori said to stop Maggie when she went to cut the rest of the pant leg off. She hesitated a moment before nodded her head and instead helped Lori to gently pull the pants off the blonde woman. The blood covered her skin, too, as well as several large bruises around the area of the cut. There was a large, jagged injury that ran from her thigh to her knee for nearly four inches, deep enough to expose muscle.

"That's going to take a lot of stitches," Maggie commented sadly as she looked down at the unconscious woman. "Hope and pray she don't wake up when it's time to take care a' that."


	26. A Purpose, My Lifeline

Lori wiped at the dirt that stained Jamie face, careful to avoid the fresh stitches and clean bandage on her forehead. It was possible to tell who she was now with the blood gone from her face. It was also easier to see all the other minor cuts that she had gotten from what Lori assumed were tree branches. Hershel had picked out enough wood and rock from her leg to easily deduce what had happened. Especially since they'd taken one specific horse.

Once she had finished cleaning off her face and neck, knowing that she'd feel better for it when she woke up, Lori picked up the bowl and moved to the kitchen to empty the contents. She was halted, however, when she saw Rick standing in the doorway.

"How is she?"

"Hershel did his best, got everything stitched up. She won't be on her leg for a while because of the long gash there, but she should be just fine with rest," Lori explained. She noticed that Rick was holding a map in his hand and he didn't seem pleased about something, but she didn't want to press and kept quiet. "What about Daryl?"

"He's awake and askin' for her. Hershel just finished up with his side, still needs to bandage up his head, though. I think we should move them into the same room, it should calm her down when she wakes up and she won't go off and try to kill Andrea again."

"Someone should go and talk with Andrea," Lori started, worry marring her features. "And I don't just mean about Jamie threatening her. She shot Daryl today."

"I understand. I think that Dale's the best one to handle that right now," Rick said in response, looking passed Lori to the woman on the bed.

Carol had helped to dress Jamie in a clean shirt and her sweat pants after they had cleaned her up as best they could, a small square bandage covering a portion of her forehead. His eyes found the red line the encircled her neck from where Daryl had said the gun strap had wrapped around her throat when she fell. He would have thought she were dead had it been him, but Daryl refused to give up until he could hold her and check for himself that her heart was no longer beating.

"We should have Daryl moved in here, it'll be easier to move him here than to move her over there," he finally said, looking back up to Lori. The brunette nodded her head in understanding, watching as Rick turned back around and left the room. She remained a moment longer, still holding the bowl in her hands before she left as well and headed off to the kitchen.

Daryl was tired of waiting, tired of people telling him that he needed to stay where he was. He threw the sheets off of his form, wincing at the sharp pain that rocketed up his side, and shuffled his way out of the room. Wearing a clean pair of pants and no shirt, he felt awkward as he stepped out into the hallways of the farmhouse. Scars from cuts, burns and various other ailments that he had sustained over the years covered the entire expanse of his torso, some large but other barely visible. He'd never been so exposed to anyone but Jamie before; it was unsettling to know that his secrets were bared; even if no one was around.

Rick had told him where Jamie had been treated when they got back and immediately began shuffling down the hallway toward her room, keeping an ear out for anyone nearby. He could hear female voices carrying from another room, the kitchen most likely with the sounds of dishes accompanying them, and made sure that they didn't grow any closer.

His side throbbed as he walked, but he refused to stop until he got to her room. The door was cracked open the slightest bit, letting him nudge it gently to let the heavy wood open the remainder of the way. Jamie lay to one side of the bed, the sheets only pulled over half of her body. Her left leg was out of the covers, her sweatpants rolled up to just above the stitches along her knee and thigh. He was relieved to see the dirt had been washed off of most of her.

Closing her door behind him, he limped his way over to the other side of the bed. The sheets were cool to the touch when he slipped under them, moving over to Jamie's side. He took her hand from her side and lifted it up so that he could keep a hold on her somehow as he rested beside her. He had seen the cuts and scratches along her torso from the loss of her shirt and he didn't want to take the chance of aggravating any of them.

She exhaled loudly suddenly, her hand tightening around Daryl's before she fell still again and resumed her peaceful slumber. For the first time since she and Daryl had entered a physical relationship, Daryl was afraid to touch her. Her entire body was riddled with cuts, bruises and stitched lacerations. For the first time since he had met her, he was truly afraid he was going to hurt her.

"I'm not a china doll."

Daryl's eyes snapped up toward her face at the sound of her voice, raw and raspy from the abuse of her gun strap. Her eyes were just barely cracked, dark shadows beneath them to show the fatigue she felt, and she was looking down at him.

"Yer hurt," he replied quietly, his hand gently squeezing the one that he was holding.

She closed her eyes for a moment, revelling in the feel of his hand holding hers, before she slipped it from his grasp to lift her arm up and place her hand gently on the side of his face, her tired digits fumbling to take purchase on something. She eventually gripped his hair loosely, leaning her head down on his but was still careful of a fresh bruise forming on her brow.

"Hold me, Daryl," she demanded weakly, her fingers knotting in his short strands. Desperate.

Slowly, carefully, he moved his arm to rest over her covered midsection, moving to rest his cheek on her collarbone. Her arm looped around his neck in response, keeping him close to her as she silently held him in return. She soon drifted back off to sleep, the drugs that had been given to her letting her sleep away the pain and fall into dreams of the past—of her once peaceful life.

Rick was the one to first take notice of Daryl's sudden disappearance from the room that Hershel had let him use, and it didn't take a genius to know where to find him. He slipped down the hallway silently, listening to the sounds of the others talking as they set the tables up for dinner, and cracked open the door to Jamie's room.

His heart went out to the redneck that lay on the bed beside Jamie, knowing that it was hard for the both of them. Jamie was welcomed with open arms, while Daryl was still looked upon with hatred and disgust for who he was and who his brother was. Even if Merle was gone, and Daryl had never been as terrible as Merle, they still made that connection between the two. If they were brothers, they had to be alike. Jamie's stories had touched some of them, hearing about the soft side of Daryl, but she refused to open up to everyone for Daryl's sake. The blonde haired male might kill Shane if the ex-cop ever caught wind of Daryl doing something considerate or gentle.

They loved one another more than anything, that was easy to see, but the others didn't seem to understand. They didn't believe that was enough.

Rick looked on at the couple at that moment, the way that Jamie's fingers were softly tangled in Daryl's hair—keeping his head against her shoulder—and his arm wrapped around her waist. He held her so tenderly; as though he were afraid she would shatter in his hands if he held on too tightly. Rick smiled faintly, thinking back to what she had told him the first night that they had met.

" _This was his,"_  she had mumbled softly as she tugged on the long sleeved, distinctly male shirt that she had pulled on. " _One of the very few long sleeved shirts that he actually owned."_

He could understand that completely, now that he had met Daryl. He hardly ever saw that man with a long sleeved shirt. That morning had been the first time, and when he got back it was in shambles. Destroyed. He thought back to the look on her face; sadness, loneliness and love. She had wanted Daryl back and now that he was with her again, the true nightmare began.

Perhaps it was easier to walk around with a purpose, striving to survive so that one can meet their goal; so that Jamie could be with Daryl again. Perhaps it was easier, still, to never reach that goal. Not knowing that he was alive gave her a purpose, and a peace with the fact that she would never know if he was dead or not. However, now that they were together again they could see each other's pain; they could even watch the other die if the situation ever arose. It may have just been easier to never know if he was alive or not.

Daryl woke up hours later, feeling hot in the humid air with a warm body pressed against his front. The room still held the faint light of sunset, just barely, and he could faintly make out Jamie's face in the darkness that was closing in. She almost looked completely normal in the dim light, any small marks on her face nearly invisible—only the thick white bandage that wrapped around her forehead gave away that something was amiss.

"You're staring," she mumbled suddenly, taking him by silent surprise. A grin rose up onto his face then, and he raised an eyebrow even though she could not see it.

"You love it."

"Bite me, babe."

"Sorry, can't. God might strike me down, Angel."

She couldn't help but to laugh at that, opening tired eyes to look up at him. He was silhouetted against the window, hardly visible to her tired eyes. His hair was sticking up around the bandage on his forehead and everywhere else from his sleep—a faint itching on her shoulder told her that his goatee had been scratching against her skin there.

"How'd you sleep?" he asked after she had calmed down, moving to rest her temple against his shoulder.

"Like a very sore, bruised rock. You?"

"Like a slightly less sore, bruised rock."

Jamie grinned in amusement before leaning toward him to press a kiss against his jawbone, feeling the overgrowth of stubble that hadn't been taken care of in a couple of days. She didn't mind, though, it was a familiar feeling and she didn't care about the prickle. A sudden knock sounded from the door, the softness of it barely even heard.

Carol's head soon poked around the door, seeing that both Jamie and Daryl were awake and looking toward her and a smile broke out on her lips. She stepped further into the room and allowed them to see that she was carrying a tray with her, holding two plates and two glasses on it. Jamie wasn't sure whether she was relieved to see the food or not, but she was relieved to see that Carol was smiling.

"I brought the both of you some dinner. Hershel said to keep it light for now, so it's just a little bit. How are you two feeling?"

"It's unanimous, we're sore and bruised," Jamie answered in a tired, but light tone. Carol smiled softly, her sympathy clear on her face. "How are you?" she cautioned to ask after a heartbeat pause, the smile disappearing just slightly from Carol's face.

"I...I really wanted to thank you, both of you. You've been very kind and helpful to me, Jamie. And Daryl, you've done more for my little girl than her daddy did her whole life. Thank you both," she whispered softly, smiling to them each in turn. Jamie wanted to say something, she wanted to comfort the other woman, but Carol disappeared from the room just as fast as she appeared, leaving them alone again.

"That thank you just makes me feel worse about not finding her," Jamie admitted in hushed tones, looking over to Daryl. Carol had turned on the lamp beside the bed and illuminated the room, allowing the two to see each other clearly for the first time since they fell off the horse. There was no longer blood and dirt covering them, hiding what they looked like. Jamie still felt filthy, but she knew that a shower was out of the question.

Daryl didn't say anything further on the matter, pulling himself up with some trouble until he was resting back against the headboard and was able to more easily reach over to the side table. Before trying to take the food he carefully assisted Jamie wish rising up as well, sitting with her back against his left side but still being careful of the arrow injury on his side.

"Do you remember," she started softly, panting at the exertion of pulling her tired body up, "when I refused to eat after my dad had died and you decided that the best thing to do was force feed me?"

Daryl grumbled as he looked down at his hand where there was a clean scar along the side of his thumb, "Damn near took my finger off." Jamie couldn't stop herself from laughing faintly as she looked at him over her shoulder, her hand lifting to run her thumb along the scar gently.

"This kind of reminds me of that."

Daryl looked at her incredulously for a moment, "No fuckin' way. I ain't tryin' that shit again; you don't want to eat: starve."

Jamie laughed, and it felt great. Daryl didn't have to try and understand why she was suddenly leaning against him as she tried to hold in her laughter, causing her sides to split in pain but in such a  _pleasant_  way. She was laughing away her pain and her grief, she was pushing aside all that had hurt her in the one way that she could. Memories. Thinking back to the things that she had overcome in the past always helped her to overcome the hardships of the present. All her life she had done that, her parents had always been proud, and now Daryl was proud.

She didn't just take things with a poker face; she experienced it, felt it, wrapped herself up with it and then dealt with it. There was no hiding things away, storing her pain up until a dam broke. She was harder to crack than anyone else he knew, because she never allowed herself to be worn down. With every hardship, her exterior grew stronger and more resilient and built itself up faster and faster with each blow.


	27. Chain Link

It was hard to walk around and Jamie hated that she had to stumble about whenever someone wasn't there to help her, but she knew that there was no chance she was going to let herself be slowed down because she got cut of a damn tree. She pushed herself onward, knowing better than to press her limits and do more damage, and helped where she could with Lori and Carol, putting aside some time to teach Carl some cheats for the trouble he was having with his math. Guess some good came out of her job after all, architecture definitely helped more than she had thought it would after the world ended.

"Hey, Jamie," Glenn said, jogging up to her.

"Hey, tank man," she teased, holding an arm out to wrap around his shoulders. "Mmm, peaches." He held the basket up for her to take one, giving her a moment as she took two. She'd force one down Daryl's throat if she had to and everyone knew it; especially Daryl. "What's happening with you lately, I haven't really seen you since you thought I was a walker."

Glenn laughed nervously, peaking her interest.

"What's going on in your head there?" she asked curiously, leaning on her good leg as she prepared to stand for a while. Leaning away from him, she kept her hand on his shoulder and looked into his face, trying to determine what it was that he was hiding. "I'll figure you out yet, Glenn."

"There's nothing to figure out, I'm just handing around some peaches," he defended. He slipped out from under her hand and quickly slinked away. She raised an eyebrow and stared after him, knowing full well that something was going on with him. He actually thinks that he can act like that and have someone believe that he was telling the truth about being alright? Not so smooth, Chinaman.

"Right," she mumbled to herself, tossing a peach up and catching it before she turned back toward the tent that she was staying in with Daryl. Carol had tried to convince them to stay in the RV once they left the house, but the two of them were dead set on staying in their tent. Things were already changing too much for their liking, they didn't want anything else to get thrown off its axis.

She paused on her way to the tent when she saw that Daryl wasn't alone. Andrea didn't linger inside the tent for long and when she saw Jamie standing a couple of yards away, she looked ready to run. She paused, however, when she saw that Jamie didn't look threatening toward her in any way. She had a relaxed posture and she wasn't glaring at her as she had done every time since she and Daryl left the house.

"Let's talk," she called over simply, before turning and heading over to the fire area. Andrea looked back into the tent, seeing that Daryl was giving her a look that ordered her to obey his fiancé, before she turned and followed after her fellow blonde. Jamie had barely reached the fire when Andrea caught up, slowed down terribly because of her left leg injury, and didn't hesitate to sit down.

"Look, I'm really sorry-"

"I'm not looking for apologies," Jamie interrupted, looking up into Andrea's blue eyes. "I was completely pissed off with you when you showed up in that field; to be completely honest I don't even remember much of it, it's all a big blur. But I know I said things that were out of place; threatening to take your life, for example." Andrea shifted uncomfortably under the hard stare of hazel eyes, not noticing the amusement that appeared in them. "Sit down before you trip over your shuffling feet."

Andrea hated that she was right and took a cautious seat beside her.

"I'm sorry for threatening to kill you and calling you a bitch; I thought that you had killed the love of my life and I snapped. Daryl's the one person that I would have and still will kill for should something come to that."

"I understand," Andrea said softly, finally beginning to relax when she realized that Jamie wasn't searching for a fight. "I would have done the same for Amy."

"I know, that's why I know you're very aware of why I did what I did. I don't want to be at ends with you, Andrea. We both want to keep this camp safe and we can't do that if we're constantly jabbing the other in the back."

"True," Andrea finally agreed with a smile. "Did Dale talk to you about this…"

"Nah, but the 'fatherly stares' weren't really helping," Jamie jested, getting a smile and nod from Andrea. The tension between them was disappearing faster than the morning fog and they both would admit that it was a relief.

"I do really want to apologize, though," Andrea quickly added in while she had the chance. Jamie's eyebrow rose up in wonder as she waited for what Andrea was going to say, leaning her hand on her propped up arm and looked at her closely, but not in a scrutinizing manner. "If you had been standing on his other side I could have shot  _you_ , or I could have actually killed one of you-"

"But you didn't," Jamie interrupted, smiling softly. Andrea was shocked at the smile, not expecting her to suddenly be so forgiving. "This is now a world of hate, fear and death. People won't survive and those that do can't afford to regret and pause. If there's actually a walker, we know we can trust you to alert everyone and try to take care of the threat." Andrea began to smile, understanding that things were finally clear. "However," Jamie added on as she held up her hand with her index finger up in a 'one moment' signal.

Andrea looked hesitant. "Yes?"

"Let's make a deal. You agree to  _never_  touch or aim a gun at anything living or un-living until you've actually learned how to shoot and I will hold nothing against you and act like it never happened, alright?"

Andrea let out a breath that she had not realized she was holding, nodding her head and taking Jamie's hand to shake it, sealing the deal between them. That was not what she had been expecting her to say, but she was as hell was not going to complain about it.

"Well, now that that's settled, please excuse me while I go force a peach down my fiancé's throat," Jamie said in all seriousness as she hoisted herself up from the chair.

Andrea opened her mouth to try and halt Jamie, but she thought better of it and simply watched the woman limp away, back toward the tent that Andrea had been in only minutes before. She really wanted to know more about why Jamie was with Daryl, the curiosity so strong inside of her, but knew that the moment wasn't right.

"Oh," Jamie said quickly as she halted and turned to look at Andrea. "And if you do shoot my fiancé again, I  _will_  kill you." Without a word more on the matter she turned back to her destination and continued to limp away; Andrea wasn't sure whether or not the blonde was serious but she felt her stomach tightening in fear none the less. Jamie wasn't going to stay injured forever.

Jamie's leg was starting to ache when she reached the tent, pushing the opening aside and dropping down onto the mattress that Daryl was lying on, boredom consuming him and leaving him to sit there with his arrow and poke holes into the side screen of the tent.

"We're going to be infested with bugs if you keep that up," she warned, looking at him over her shoulder briefly as she carefully pulled her boots off and pushed them aside, trying her best not to bend her left leg—the action nearly impossible with the bandages she had been given, anyway. She lay down on her side against Daryl, looking down at him as he adjusted his head on the rolled pillow so that he could see her better.

"Have a nice chat?" he finally asked after a beat of silence between them, continuing to roll the arrow between both sets of index fingers and thumbs. She shrugged her shoulders before reaching back to where she had placed the peaches on the edge of the mattress and lifted out up to where he could bite into it. Daryl nearly went cross-eyed, trying to get a look at it, before he rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"You're going to eat it; whether it be a pleasant experience or not."

He raised an eyebrow at her in challenge, causing her to mimic the gesture. "And just how can ya make it pleasant?"

She grinned devilishly and almost caused him to worry before she took a great bite from the peach in her hand. The juice flowed down from the broken fruit and drew a groan from Daryl as he watched the liquid slip down her tanned flesh. He wished so badly to lick up the juice, healthy be damned. She didn't chew the fruit, though, and instead leaned toward him and pressed a kiss against his lips. His lips were soon forced apart and he felt the bite of peach being pushed into his mouth.

Daryl felt the juice of the fruit caress his lips and pass his teeth as the morsel of food touched his tongue, Jamie's lips urging him to bite it. She smiled against his lips when she felt his jaw close and knew that he had given in; the peach slice exploded with flavourful liquid inside his mouth. She held the bitten peach in her hand away from him to stop the juice from falling on him as he urged the kiss to continue.

"Damn," T-Dog's voice said suddenly from the entrance of the tent, "Wish I had a girlfriend that fed my food like that." Daryl didn't even open his eyes as he chucked the arrow he was holding toward the voice. T-Dog was laughing as he walked away, glancing back only once to see that Daryl had wrapped his now free arms around his fiancé to draw her closer.

To have her in his arms once more was something that he had feared he had lost, petrified he would never be able to do it again when he had seen her in those trees. He wouldn't admit to anyone what he had been truly terrified in that moment, and was now truly relieved and rejuvenated to know that she was indeed alive and in his arms.

He refused to let her leave his embrace, even if that meant having her feed him peaches—the best way to eat peaches—and knew that he was going to be hard pressed with letting her leave his sights when they weren't in camp.

The openness of the tent didn't deter him when the peach was finally finished, the seed thrown out the opening, as he took hold of her arm and ran his tongue along her forearm, where there was a sticky trail left behind that had been calling to him since he watched the drip glide along her flesh. He continued to run his tongue along her arm until there was no trace left of the sticky residue.

She gladly returned the favour with the peach juice on his lips.

"No sex!" Shane yelled from outside the tent, effectively killing the mood between the two and immediately causing Jamie to roll off of Daryl at the thought of Shane being anywhere near either of them. She repressed a chill at the thought of him actually seeing what they had been doing and looked over to Daryl, seeing that he was glaring up at the roof of the tent as the sexual frustration began to mount.

"Imma kill the fucker," he growled out, wiping his face with his hands.

"When are they leaving for gun training again?"

Jamie sat in the RV hours later, her elbow leaning on the table with her eyes looking off out the window as she sat still. Carol wrapped a new bandage around her leg as gently as possible after she had applied new ointment to the injury, not taking notice of Jamie's intense stare out the window. She watched as Rick spoke with his wife, clearly something between the two of them pulling them farther from the other.

She could not help but to be concerned for Rick.

"That should do it for today, Hershel's going to give you enough for a week but after that we need to start going off our own supplies," Carol explained when she stepped away from Jamie and moved to sit opposite her at the table. Jamie looked away from the married couple and smiled her thanks to Carol, trying not to seem distracted.

"Thanks for helping me, you've got very careful hands."

"I'm sure that Daryl would have helped you just fine," Carol answered, but they both know that he couldn't do much knocked out on painkillers in their tent. He had promised Jamie that he would take one to get a good night sleep for at least one night, but they took affect faster on him because of his lack of food intake and Jamie was left to search for other helping hands.

"Maybe tomorrow," Jamie jested and was glad to see a smile of amusement come to Carol's lips. She sighed loudly, then, and leaned back in her seat and once more looked out the window to where Rick and Lori were. They weren't distant anymore and seemed to have made up for whatever they had been disagreeing about before. "I wonder how long Hershel will let us stay," she whispered finally, voicing her thoughts.

Carol looked down to the table of the RV and tried to avoid voicing her own opinion.

"We haven't really been the best guests."

"We can't take blame for that, though. Not entirely. They only reason we're here in the first place is because Otis shot Carl, we would have continued on if it were for…" Carol tried to explain, getting a nod from Jamie but not much else. Carol could see that there was a subtle change in the woman before her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She acted mostly the same, but there seemed to be a strange edge to her that told of a difference in her.

Jamie could feel it inside of her, the anger and hatred that had begun to grow after the first death that came up on the news that revealed the infections. She had tried to push everything away but there was no way to completely forget or ignore what was happening. Andrea had put a crack in the restraining chains on her anger and had seen what she was capable of when she was not in control of herself, but that was not even the beginning.

"I should be getting back to Daryl," she said suddenly, rising up carefully. She pulled the leg of her pants back down to cover the bandages; Carol quickly leapt forward to offer her assistance and helped Jamie down the steps of the RV as best she could.

"Are you sure you'll be alright in the tent?"

"Don't worry about us so much, Carol," Jamie said softly as she placed a gentle hand on the other woman's cheek. Carol was looking for more than just a way to distract herself—she was looking for someone to take care of and tend to with Sophia missing.

Carol had become the unofficial mother of their strange family.

"Everything'll be a'right," she assured, pressing a kiss against her forehead. Carol seemed to go limp for a moment before she continued on, letting Jamie limp back to the tent that she was sure Daryl would still be unconscious inside. She walked over to the entrance and picked up on his lack of movement right away. He was still out cold.


	28. Severance

_Jamie groaned as she buried her face into her pillow, trying to go back to sleep. Why the fuck was someone trying to wake her up at_ this _hour? The banging on her door continued and she finally huffed in annoyance and threw the covers off herself, throwing her legs off the bed and marched over to the door of her hotel room. She had to get up early as it was to get back home and she did not want to have to deal with someone at two in the morning._

" _What the fuck do you want?" she demanded after she turned on the lights and began pulling the lock aside, dropping the chain and twisting the knob to open the door. She froze in place when she was greeted with a very pale looking hotel worker, their uniform coated in blood with a large chunk of flesh missing from their neck._

_The man rasped loudly as he reached for her, his hands torn up and bleeding, and Jamie screamed as loud as her vocal cords could manage before she abruptly slammed the door closed again. Twisting the lock closed and putting the chain in place, she quickly flipped the lights off once more and pressed herself against the door, trying to quiet her breathing._

_The man began scratching desperately at her door, growling and snarling loudly. Jamie placed a hand over her mouth before she pulled herself upward again and looked through the peep-hole, wondering briefly why she hadn't used that in the first place, and watched as the man began to run into her door in a fruitless attempt to get the door open. He wasn't even slamming his shoulder again it, he was just_ walking _face first into her door over and over._

" _Daryl," she gasped to herself before she stumbled through the darkness to get back to the bed, where she had left her phone on the nightstand. Her hands fumbled along the surface before she flipped it open and looked down at the screen. Three missed calls. All were from Daryl._

_Hitting the redial button, she held the phone to her ear, picked up her bag and made a mad dash for the bathroom as the dead man continued to ram against her hotel door. She listened to the ringing in her ear from the phone as well as a rhythmic pounding of her heartbeat as blood rushed through her veins. The light stung her eyes when she had finally closed herself into the bathroom, the ringing cutting off as Daryl picked up._

_His voice was frantic. "Angel?"_

" _What the fuck?" she nearly screamed into the phone as she began tugging clothes from her bag to change into, pulling a pair of jeans loose and beginning to hop about as she attempted to get them on and keep the phone to her ear._

" _The world's gone to shit, babe. Where are you?"_

" _In the bathroom of my hotel room; a worker just tried to eat me-"_

" _Did he bite you?" Daryl demanded in a nearly menacing tone._

" _No-"_

" _Don't let them bite you!" he yelled into the phone, nearly making her cringe as she finally did up her pants and soon began to look for a shirt to put on. "That's how it happens, don't let them bite you or scratch you or anything. I need you to get the fuck back here right now."_

" _I sure as hell ain't stayin' here," she snapped back, pulling the phone from her ear for no more than a second. "Daryl, what's going on?"_

" _I don't know for sure, but the military's all over the fuckin' place. Merle's havin' a fuckin' hay day," Daryl answered back, sounding angered and irritated. "Angel, I want you to stay away from anyone that tries to come near you, alright? Even if they don't look sick, stay the fuck away from_ everyone. _"_

" _You, too, babe," she whispered into the phone. "I'm going to have to go out the window; the place is probably full of those things. I'll call you back as soon as I'm in the car, alright?"_

" _Be careful, Jamie, I swear-"_

" _I'll be alright, Daryl," she assured softly, pausing in her actions as she looked to her reflection in the bathroom mirror; her hair was a complete mess and she looked like she had just witnessed someone being murdered. "I love you."_

" _Don't start talking like this is goodbye!" he growled through the phone. Jamie felt the need to start crying burn her eyes, but did her best to repress it._

"Hey," Daryl voice said, cutting of Jamie's thoughts suddenly. She looked up from the plate that was on her lap, her eyes moving to meet his. He looked concerned, though it was discrete because of his lack of openness around the others. She tried to smile to show that she was alright, but it didn't come off as well as she had hoped. "What're you thinkin' 'bout?"

"The hotel room," she said softly, "when I saw my first walker." He nodded in understanding, the concern fading slightly from his eyes. She took his hand gently and kissed his knuckles, knowing that she had to show him that she was okay in some way. He leaned over while he had the chance and kissed her temple, an answer to her own reassurance.

"Want some more?" Carol asked softly as she stepped over to them with the pan. Daryl lifted his plate up but Jamie declined politely, leaning her head against Daryl's shoulder. She hated that moment when she had been alone in the bathroom of her hotel room, completely petrified and with nothing more to do but run. She had no weapons, no way of getting out besides her window.

"Uh, guys," Glenn called softly, causing everyone to slowly turn their attention toward him. Jamie leaned back in her chair to look around Daryl's shoulder, seeing that he was rubbing at his face nervously. She wondered if he was going to admit to what had made him so nervous to a couple of days prior. "So…" he mumbled softly, dropping his hands before straightening up and admitting, "the barn's full of walkers."

Anyone that had only been half listening suddenly became very aware of him, turning their eyes to him as dread set over them all. Jamie rose to her feet shakily, looking past him to the barn in the distance as her empty plate clattered to the ground. Her heart hit the floor as she tried to comprehend what was going to happen. They had all been living, sleeping and moving about daily with a number of walkers yards away from them. She felt sick at the realization.

It didn't take long to make their way to the barn, standing in a group a couple yards from the entrance. Jamie limped along next to Daryl, his arm wrapped around her waist as he helped her along. His side injury was smaller than her leg one, allowing him to move around easier, sooner. She hated the fact that he had to lean on him all the time, but she was glad that he was there for her none the less.

"You cannot tell me you're alright with this?" Shane demanded as he looked between the cracks of the barn, watching the walkers as they mulled about inside. Jamie was half tempted to wish one would bite him, but knew that it was a horrible thing to wish on someone. She could hear the growling from where she was and felt the need to block it all out.

"No, I'm not," Rick snapped back, his eyes never leaving the barn. Jamie stayed silent, even though she knew that it wasn't Shane's place to say anything. She knew better than to go off and say something and draw Shane's anger toward her. He was a loose cannon, a threat to their lives and there was nothing that could be done. Because he was still human. "But we're guests here; this isn't our land."

"We can't just walk away," Jamie interrupted when Shane and Rick went at one another about leaving or staying. "They are a threat to us, but it's also a threat to them. If we decide to just up and leave then we will be responsible for their lives as well. What will happen if these walkers get out after we leave?"

"They'll die," Daryl answered for everyone else.

"That's not our problem," Shane growled, moving threateningly toward Jamie. Daryl stepped forward, blocking Shane's path and met his eyes challengingly.

"We can't just go-"

"Why, Rick?" Shane demanded, spinning around to face his friends again. "Why?"

Carol stepped up, moving around Jamie and Daryl and into the circle of conversation. "Because my daughter's still out there," she answered quietly, gaining the sympathy of all of the others. All but Shane. He looked irritated as he wiped his hands across his face, sighing loudly.

"She's right," Jamie said, looking to Carol before she laid a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Carol, I think it's time that we all just consider the other possibilities-"

"Shane!" Jamie yelled, interrupting him and stopping his words before he could complete his sentence. "We  _will not_  leave Sophia here by herself," she snapped, the anger inside of her starting to rise again. Her patience with the ex-cop was wearing extremely thin and she didn't know if she would be able to hold herself back from hurting him. He was like a bully, picking on others because he believed that he was above them. They could all fire a gun, they could hold their own. But he believed that he was in control.

"We're close to finding this girl, we just found her doll a couple days ago," Daryl added in, walking passed Jamie as he motioned in the direction that the doll had been found. Anger surged in Jamie and Daryl when Shane just laughed, sounding nearly insane as he actually  _grinned_  at them.

"You found a doll, Daryl. That's what you did, you found a  _doll_ ," Shane mocked loudly.

"You don't know what the  _hell_  you're talkin' 'bout!" Daryl yelled out, marching toward Shane threateningly. Shane began to yell back, with Rick trying to step in between so that a fight didn't break out between the two hot headed males—everyone knew that that was bound to happen sometime within the near future. Shane took no notice of Rick's attempt to shut him up and instead turned his attention over to where Jamie was holding onto Daryl's shoulder.

"And let me tell you something else," he yelled, stepping around Rick. "If she was alive out there and saw you comin', all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck she'd run in the other direction, man-"

Rick expected a confrontation between Shane and Daryl, especially after Shane yelled that at the man, but he did not expect Jamie to launch herself over his outstretched arm, not able to stop her hand from snapping out and slapping Shane hard across the face. Daryl didn't reach back to stop her but was snarling and yelling back at Shane in just as much anger.

Andrea and Carol reached for Jamie, pulling on her shirt to get her back as Rick pushed Shane and Daryl apart, separating the fight that was quickly escalading.

"You don't know anything," Jamie screamed, not fighting against both women but continuing to scream at Shane from a distance. "Fuckin' pathetic, thinkin' you're so above! What have you done?  _What have you done_!"

Daryl was the first to allow himself to be pushed back by Rick, moving back to Jamie and standing at her side once more. Shane turned on Lori, glaring at her next before he began to pace. Jamie leaned against Daryl's side as her leg throbbed in dull pain from her sudden movements, continuing to watch Shane with a critical eye. Her hazel eyes had never looked more dark then at that moment, watching as Shane stalked about like a caged animal.

"Just let me talk to Hershel, let me figure it out."

"Man, what the hell are you going to figure out?"

"You alright?" Daryl asked quietly as he leaned his cheek against Jamie's temple, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and holding onto her loosely, but still remaining there for her. She nodded her head stiffly against his cheek, watching Shane the entire time.

The only time she looked away from the group was when her attention was shifted to the barn, knowing that walkers were so close to her and the others sending shivers over her skin. It was truly unsettling to have such deadly creatures in the building that was on the same land they slept on, with only a rickety wall of an old barn stopping them from killing them.

The doors to the barn were pushed out suddenly, all of the noise and yelling drawing the walkers toward them and urging them to press against the doors to try and escape their confines. Daryl pushed Jamie gently to stand behind him, many of the others rushing to get further away from the doors to put themselves at a safer distance.

"Shit," Jamie mumbled, looking away from the doors. She couldn't bear the thought of having those things so close to her.

_Jamie didn't really believe that there was a God up in Heaven, or that there was any kind of person that was watching over the people of the world. Truthfully, the only times that she ever really believed in or prayed to God was when she was afraid a life was about to be lost; whether that life be her own or someone else's._

_At that moment, she found herself praying to God, hanging from the balcony of her hotel room with her bag strapped to her back and hoping that she didn't miss the balcony below hers and end up dying on the pavement. She prayed to God that she didn't die, that Daryl was okay—hell, she even prayed for Merle not to get his ass killed._

_Taking a deep breath, she released her hold on the railing and fell, dropping down quickly. The breath she was holding rushed out of her lungs when she hit the balcony below, her chest slamming down on the railing as her arms and hands snapped out to try and take purchase on something. It took her a moment to regain her breath before she looked down to where the alley was beneath her, knowing that she would have to be careful not to land directly on her feet for fear of breaking her ankles._

_The shockwave of pain that went up her legs when she hit the ground couldn't have been dulled even when she rolled onto her back, nearly landing on her bag. She swore to herself mentally as the pain surged through her side and legs, but she didn't allow herself time to hesitate and pushed her body up onto her feet until she was rushing toward the parking lot, toward her car._

_There was no one else out on the streets, leaving her by herself and the blackness of night._

_Falling into her driver's seat, she locked the door after and quickly made sure that all of the others were locked as well. She didn't waste time with pulling her phone out again, along with her car keys, and was soon on the road with the phone ringing in her ear. She didn't much bother with rules of the road and instead sped along the concrete to the nearest highway to take her home._

" _Fuck! Daryl!" she screamed, her hand slamming on the steering wheel when the ringing only continued. She felt the same feeling of tears burning her eyes and ended the call, looking down at the screen briefly before she hit redial again and returned the phone to against her ear._

_Still no answer._

" _No, come on, baby, pick up," she prayed softly, but there was never any answer. She looked down at the screen one last time before tossing it into the bag on her passenger seat, turning her eyes back to the road. A scream tore from her lips when she saw someone standing in the middle of the road, struggling to walk about. She jerked the wheel as hard as she could, turning the car to the right and toward the ditch, but still ended up hitting the woman that was there._

_Her scream cut short when the car kicked up onto its side, glass flying everywhere as the metal made a sickening crunching sound._


	29. Wait For Me

The length of the camp didn't seem long enough for her as she paced endlessly; her eyes looked from the farmhouse, to the barn and to the driveway leading to the road. Jamie didn't know what to do, what to believe. There was so much to think about now that the truth about the barn had come out and she found herself feeling sick. She loved the solitude of staying on the farm; it was a safe place to lie down at the end of the day without the worry that you could be eaten.

At least they had thought it was a safe place.

She wanted the walkers gone, but if Hershel thought of them as  _sick_  people, he would never let them kill them and then it was just too unsettling to stay. She didn't trust that old, rickety building to keep the walkers in place any more than a sheet of paper. There was no chance that they would be staying in there. And she also knew that there was never going to be a cure. It was a heartbreaking fact, but how can you cure something that's already dead? It's not like you can restart their hearts and suddenly they won't have skin rotting off their very bones.

"Too much to think about, isn't it?" Glenn asked from the roof of the RV. Jamie looked up to him once before continuing her pacing, a hand moving to cover her mouth as she thought. "Are you sure you should be pacing like that? I can't be good for your leg."

"I'm fine," she called, even though he was right. Her leg hurt more than it had for a while and it wasn't a smart thing to continue with putting it through so much. Sitting around wasn't an option, though. She hated having to just sit around and because she knew that there wasn't much she could do she felt that she at least had to  _move._

"Come on, Jay, you'll just set yourself back in your healing," Glenn tried to reason, taking a momentary break in his lookout to attempt at swaying her thoughts. She didn't break from her concentrated state, though, and he let out a sigh.

Looking over through the landscape again, he paused when he caught sight of Daryl marching toward the campsite, looking pissed. He swallowed thickly and acted as though he couldn't see a thing, but knew that Daryl was well aware he could be seen. Jamie, however, didn't take notice of her fiancé and instead continued her own march. She was leaving a track across the ground, pushing aside stones, leaves and twigs to reveal the compact dirt beneath.

She turned back when she ran out of room and began making her way back across the camp again when Daryl stepped into her path, halting her movements. She was finally broken from her thoughts at the look on his face, angered and upset. She opened her mouth to ask him what the problem was, since she was sure that he would have been off doing something after Shane's dig about Sophia, but the words were stopped when he pushed his shoulder into her stomach and stood, leaving her draped down his back.

"Daryl!" she gasped out, taking fistfuls of his shirt to hold her torso up but was mindful not to grab near the arrow wound. He turned on heel and marched away from the camp, leaving a baffled Glenn behind on the roof of the RV. "What the fuck, Daryl? Put me down!"

"I will," he grumbled back, not saying anything further. Jamie rolled her eyes immaturely, wincing when his shoulder dug into her gut and sent pain through her abdomen. She wasn't sure where they were going, but she knew that he wouldn't be putting either of them in any danger. Instead, she watched as the dirt changed to grass beneath his feet, moving along toward the forest.

"Daryl, where are we going?" she asked after a couple of minutes of him walking, her stomach beginning to throb in pain. No matter how much muscle she had accumulated over the years it still hurt to have him digging a bone joint into her intestines. The blood was beginning to rush to her head, as well, and it was making her dizzy. "Daryl," she started, but wasn't able to finish when he put her back down on her feet, careful of the shock on her knee.

"Can't get any damn peace up there," he grumbled out, not entirely directed at her. Jamie looked around them in that instant, noticing that they were off to the back of the property, away from prying eyes but still close enough that they wouldn't have much to worry about if they ran into trouble. Jamie noticed that Daryl wasn't carrying his crossbow.

"What's wrong?" Jamie asked hesitantly, moving to lean against a tree. She took his hand gently and guided him to stand before her, but he didn't stop there and was soon leaning his hips against hers with his hands on the tree behind her. Her body heated at the familiar presence and her heart began to beat faster within her chest, giving her skin a beautiful flush beneath her tan.

"I'm not going to give up," he announced, surprising her. That was not what she had been expecting. She didn't say anything, though, and simply let him continue on with what he was saying. It wasn't often that Daryl felt the need to explain his actions or his thoughts. "Not on you, or that little girl. Carol isn't sure if it's…if anythin'…" he kept trying to get the right things out, but the words wouldn't come forward the way he wanted them to.

Jamie placed her hand over his lips gently, silencing his words. He stopped trying to get the words to come when he felt her skin caress his lips, closing his eyes a moment as Jamie leaned her head against his, her forehead slipping against his because of the sweat that had accumulated there. Daryl's hand removed hers from his mouth before his lips caught hers in a soft kiss, the hair of his goatee scratching her chin and making her smile. Who would have guessed that the irritating feel of facial hair was something she enjoyed?

"I can understand why she would say that," Jamie whispered softly, stroking his cheek with her fingertips. "Every time we seem to get a lead we're shot back down and I can imagine that she can only take so much of that. Maybe, for her, giving up is easier," she explained, pressing a second kiss to his lips and offering a sad smile.

"It's her daughter," he growled out, his hands moving to hold her hips in a tight grip. "She shouldn't give up like that!"

"I know," Jamie agreed with a sad smile. "Just stay with her, give her what she needs; hope. Don't let what  _Shane_ says do a damn thing. You are not your brother; you are strong, independent and a hell of a lot better person than Shane; cop history be damned. Sophia wouldn't run away from you, Daryl. She trusts you to keep the group safe; she's probably more afraid of Shane than of you." Daryl's head fell to rest on her shoulder as she was talking, her hands messaging his back as his thumbs rubbed circles against her hip bones.

"You'd never run from me."

Jamie smiled and turned her head toward him and whispered slyly against his ear, "every hunter loves a good chase."

A sharp nip against her neck was her answer, drawing a hiss from her as she inhaled sharply through her teeth. Daryl grinned masochistically against her throat, pulling at her hips to press her body against his own. They both groaned at the contact, clutching desperately at the other. Refusing to wait any longer, Jamie's hands slipped beneath Daryl's shirt and began to trace the dips and curves created by his muscles with her fingertips.

"I'm fairly certain that Hershel would consider this a strenuous activity," Jamie teased as her hands began to slide up his front, undoing the buttons to his shirt in the process. Daryl's only reply was to push her back against the tree with his hips and attack her lips again, his teeth biting her flesh and his hand pushing into her hair. She had him stripped of his shirt before long, her fingers gliding along his torso; not one scar was left untouched as she pushed her lips back against his.

"Seriously," he rasped out, his hands pushing her shirt up as his hips kept hers pinned, "Don't. Care."

Jamie couldn't stop herself from laughing as she was pushed down onto the forest floor gently, her butt resting on Daryl's thighs as his hands began to tug at the waist her sweatpants. She pulled her shirt off on her own, exposing the bra that she had been given when her sports bra was deemed destroyed. The humid air was nearly too much, only worsening their already heated bodies.

Daryl paused for but a moment as he looked over the quickly healing welts that were caused by trees and other elements of nature, barely even red scratches left visible on her skin. His hands caressed them lightly, kissing at the red mark that remained on her neck. She was still perfect; in whatever condition she was in he knew that she was always going to be the same. She was his; to love, hold and protect.

Using her core muscles, Jamie pulled herself up enough to grab a hold of his hair and tug him down to lie on top of her, pressing her further into the ground and begin a new play of lips and tongues between them. She kept one arm wrapped firmly around his neck, keeping him in place so that he couldn't pull away again while her other hand moved to the belt of his pants. A startled gasp left her lips, though, when he suddenly pulled on the underside of her pants and pulled them up along her thighs to bare her to him.

Her head fell back into the dead leaves that covered the ground—surely getting many of them tangled in her loose hair—and gave up on trying to attack his belt as he took over the process. His lips moved to her neck again, moving along her newly exposed skin to remind himself of just what if felt like. Gasps and moans were torn from her throat at the feelings that were shooting through her, like electricity dancing along her skin. "Daryl."

"I gotcha," he whispered against her collarbone, sounding more sincere than she thought she had ever heard. Her entire body trembled in such a lack of control, all of the pain that she had been feeling slowly flowing away. The endorphins that were rushing through her blood were too much, completely blocking everything else out and just letting her  _be._

She cried out blissfully when she felt him press into her, her back arching off the ground and forcing her body up against his sweat slicked stomach. He caught her in another kiss to quiet her and began to thrust, bringing tears to her eyes at the feeling. There was nothing that could compare to when they were together, no moment or feeling. Everything was so unique that Jamie could never contain herself. "Don't stop, never stop," she begged against his lips, her nails digging into his back.

His rhythm sped up at her words, his hands moving to clutch at the dirt beneath them, his face pressed into the crook of her neck. Not wanting to hurt him too much, one of Jamie's hands sought purchase on the tree they had been leaning against, her fingernails scratching at the bark as she held on for what seemed for dear life. Daryl freed one of his hands to reach up at remove her other from his back, folding his fingers around her palm and keeping a strong grasp on her.

Her good leg tightened around his hip, pressing him further into her as she gasped for air. There was not enough air, there was no oxygen. The pleasure that rippled through her body left her tingling and light headed, but she wanted  _more._  Never could she ever have enough; there would never be a time when she could deny him or deny  _herself_.

"Fuck," Daryl swore against her shoulder and Jamie knew that she didn't have to wait anymore and was soon holding her breath, her face pressed into his shoulder and her hand once more gripping at his back, her own holding onto his in a white-knuckle grip. His weight pressed down on her and forced her to breathe again, bringing her back to herself. The cool air that blew through the trees chilled the sweat on their skin and allowed them to relax into a peaceful moment.

"I don't want to go back, yet," Jamie admitted softly after a couple of minutes, distracting herself by stroking her nails along Daryl's spine. He would shiver against the feel every now and again, but never once left their intimate embrace.

"I ain't movin'," Daryl declared softly, but loud enough for Jamie to hear him. She paused her stroking for a moment when she heard the sound of tears in his voice, unsure of whether or not she was right, before she resumed her movements and pressed a ghost of a kiss against his sweat slicked shoulder.

"Neither am I—I promise."

Silence fell between them again, only the sounds of the window through the trees and the various woodland creatures breaking the calm. The sun touched their skin every now and again when the tree branches moved in the wind and left a window of space for the light to shine through the leaves. It was so quiet and blissful that it was almost as though nothing was wrong; it gave them a moment to block out the world and pretend that they weren't fighting for their very lives. They would eventually have to go back to camp and face reality, leaving behind the illusions of serenity and normality.

Jamie's hand soon moved up from along his back to begin stroking through his hair, pulling the wet strands through her fingers. "I love you." Daryl was silent in reply, but his grip on her hand tightened for a moment.

"Angel," he started hesitantly, making her pause again. He pulled himself up from her body slowly, leaving her at a loss as she began to miss the warmth of his body again. "Would you have wanted kids before all this?" he asked suddenly, taking her by surprise. That's what he's been thinking about? If she would have wanted kids?

"In truth; not really." Her answer must have surprised him because his eyes widened slightly and he opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out as he changed his mind last second. She smiled endearingly and lifted her hand to stroke her thumb on his cheek. "I'm not really a kid liking person. Sure, they're cute when it's someone else's kid but I don't think that I'd be cut out for taking care of one of my own. I enjoy my own time too much; wouldn't have that with a child. Besides, that would mean no more wild kitchen sex."

"Are you being serious or are you just saying that because it's what you think I want to hear?" Daryl asked, keeping her eyes looking into his. Jamie laughed, licking her dried lips and shaking her head in amusement.

"Daryl, when have I ever told you something because it's what you want to hear?" she challenged, getting a smirk back on his face as he nodded.

"True."

It was hours before they finally left their refuge, even then still reluctantly, and made their way back toward the camp. They were both beginning to feel the effects of what they had done, Jamie limping slightly more harshly while Daryl was forced to slow himself when his side began to ache and throb with every breath he took. However, they would never regret what they had done.

Jamie paused when she spotted Carol taking down some of the clothes that had been hung up to dry, folding them up and placing them in piles by who owned each item. Jamie took Daryl's hand to halt his movements, drawing his eyes down toward her. "You should talk to her," she encouraged softly, motioning over to the mother.

Daryl paused for a moment, his eyes moving over to Carol for a moment before he returned his attention to Jamie and nodded his head. He bent forward and gently placed a kiss against her forehead, lingering for a moment, before he pulled away to move over to the other woman. Jamie smiled softly as she watched them walk off before she limped her way over to the chairs surrounding the fire pit, wishing for nothing more than rest for her abused leg.

"Have fun?" Glenn asked as he walked up beside where she was sitting, stopping in his trek up to the RV. Jamie fell down into one of the chairs with a groan of satisfaction, straightening her leg out before her to try and relieve some of the pain. She didn't look annoyed by his words, but she also did not feel like talking about her escape from reality.

"What's this I hear about a drug store…?" Jamie asked, leaving the question to hang as she looked up to Glenn. Her payback for his teasing worked as a blush rose to his cheeks, his eyes moving to the ground. She laughed softly and patted him on the leg to assure that she was only joking. "Take a seat, kid."

"You're not about to give me some motherly advice or something, are you?" Glenn asked worriedly as he looked down at the woman in the chair. Her cheeks were flushed slightly and there were a couple of barely visible leaves in her hair. It didn't take a genius to guess what had happened after Daryl had appeared out of nowhere and abducted her from the camp, carrying her off toward the trees. He wouldn't mention anything, though, because they both deserved that much.

"Would you rather swap stories?" she returned, only causing his blush to deepen before he fell into the chair next to hers and force a laugh from her lungs. "Good choice. Now, what the hell is going on with you?"

Jamie sat with him for a while, listening as he explained in hushed tones what had happened with Maggie in town, all the times they had gone, and then the evening that she and Daryl had been bedridden and he had found the walkers in the barn. She didn't interrupt, barely even nodding her head in acknowledgment. She wasn't really going to say anything and Glenn knew it, but he was also aware that it felt so  _good_  to tell someone everything, start to finish. Before long, he was like a broken dam gushing water.

There was only one thing that made her stop him. "Wait, Lori's pregnant?" she asked quietly, straightening up and looking concerned. Glenn nodded his head hesitantly, wondering if it had been wrong to add in that part. "Fuck, that's one decision I would not want to make." She motioned for him to continue, falling silent once more.

"I just don't know what to do with all of this," Glenn admitted as he ran his hands through his hair slowly. Jamie frowned in sympathy before she straightened up in her chair a second time, leaning toward him so that there was no chance anyone else could hear.

"You can't change yourself to make her happy, Glenn. But it sounds like you're very aware that she is right as well, you can't keep acting as the dummy for everyone, letting them use you as walker bait. If she cares about you then it'll break her heart to lose you. She's coming from a good place, even if she's gone the wrong way about it. Did she really break an egg on your head?"

"She put it in my hat and then crushed it in the hat; while the hat was on my head," he explained, closing his eyes at the disgusting memory. Jamie couldn't stop herself from laughing softly, trying to picture Glenn with egg dripping down his face.

"You need to confront her, Glenn. So far it's all been about why she did what she did, but maybe it's time things became why  _you_  did what you did. You want her safe; tell her that. Tell her about why you do the things you do; tell her about the time you saved Rick and myself while in that tank." Glenn nodded his head as he listened to her, not expecting to hear something like that from someone that was with Daryl all the time. "And this is your chance," she continued, motioning behind him. Glenn turned sharply to see that Maggie was making her way along the path toward the house, carrying a basket of crops.

"Thank you," he said hurriedly to Jamie before leaping from his seat and rushing off to catch up with Maggie, calling her name. Jamie smirked to herself as she relaxed back into place and crossed her bag leg over her good one with her arms draped over her stomach.

"I should have been a counsellor," she mumbled to herself, looking up at the tops of the trees that canopied their camp. Truthfully, she wasn't sure she wanted to stay on the farm. Sure, it was a great place to stay at the end of a day and it was more secure than anywhere else they had been. However, it wasn't safe to settle down anymore, because there was always going to be the danger of drawing attention to that one place. Moving around prevented that from happening. That was another reason she didn't want to stay with Morgan and Duane. She tried to convince Morgan to move on, but he wasn't ready and there was no way she could press him.

Too bad peace seems to last for very short periods of time in that camp.


	30. Lanterns to the Sky

"Jamie," Lori called suddenly, waking the dozing woman. Jamie's neck was stiff as she pulled her head up to look over to where Lori was approaching her, looking rushed. She supressed a groan of pain and rolled her neck, trying to alleviate the discomfort. "Can I talk to you?" she asked once she was a couple of feet away, rubbing her palms on her jeans nervously.

The blonde knew that wasn't a good sign. "Sure," she agreed immediately. Pulling herself onto her feet, she motioned for Lori to lead the way and began to limp after her slowly. Her knee was stiff from lack of movement, but at least it wasn't throbbing anymore. If only she could have some ice for it, that would make thing so much better.

Lori led the way toward the house, keeping her pace slow so that Jamie could keep up with her. She didn't say anything as she walked her along, her mind far away in her thoughts. Jamie watched her from her corner of her eye carefully, unable to help herself from wondering just what was going on inside the other woman's head. Lori had been drawing away from everyone recently and it was slightly concerning for most parties.

"What's wrong?" Jamie asked when they reached the house, taking the back steps up onto the porch. Lori hesitated as she paced on the spot slightly, continuing to rub her hands on her jeans. "Lori-"

"Did you have an affair with my husband?" Lori asked as she cut off Jamie's words, looking up into the hazel eyes of the other woman. Jamie looked shocked for a moment before her features dropped into a dark frown, her hazel eyes seeming to deepen. Lori was fearful of the look because it was nearly identical to the one that she had given Shane that morning outside the barn.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" Jamie growled out after a moment, her voice eerily calm. "Be lucky that even if you weren't pregnant I wouldn't hit someone weaker than me. Yea, I know about the  _bun in the oven_." Lori felt her blood turn to ice as Jamie stepped closer to her, fighting against the urge to back away in fear. She knew that it wasn't a good idea to ask Jamie, but she figured that it was better to do when she was injured and slowed down. After her reaction with Andrea, she feared what the blonde could do. "I don't know which is worse, the fact that you just short of called me a whore or that you have such little faith in your own husband. He risked everything for you and your son and you have the audacity to ask if I was _sleeping_  with him?"

"Please, just answer-"

"No," Jamie snapped, "I wasn't sleeping with your husband when I was desperately searching for my fiancé." Lori eyes diverted to the ground, feeling like a reprimanded child. "You'd know all about affairs, though, wouldn't you? Shane, right?"

Lori's head snapped back up with fearful eyes, trying to stop what Jamie was saying. "You don't know-"

"Oh, bullshit. He's got only puppy eyes for you, Lori. Rick told me all about Shane, his best friend, and yet all they seem to do is disagree. Why would Shane suddenly have such a hate for someone he used to care so much about. And then I realized; he's got it for the best friend's wife. And you didn't waste a fucking second after you thought he was dead, did you? Was that what made you think it was okay? 'The world ended, my husband's dead so I'm going to bang his best friend'?" Lori flinched at the menacing words that Jamie was saying, feeling each one cutting deep.

"I'm sorry, but with the way that he's been looking at you, it's concerning me."

"We're friends, Lori. I saved his life, he saved mine. It's an 'I got your back' kind of thing," Jamie nearly yelled, "Fuck." she couldn't stop herself before she turned and kicked the stairs with her good leg, wanting to get out some of her frustration. "God damn it, Lori, why did you do this? Everything's already going to shit and you go off and ask  _that_?"

"It's a fair question!" she defended.

"For who?" Jamie asked back, looking at Lori like she was insane. "I love my fiancé, I would never cheat on him. Just because you cheated on your husband, whether you thought he was dead or not, doesn't give you  _any_  fucking right to assume anyone else would do that." Lori didn't say anything more, leaving her eyes on the ground as Jamie glared at the top of her head. She scoffed after a moment and turned to leave, her strides long and her body tense. "Un-fucking-believable."

She made her way around to the front of the house, seeing that several others were hanging around there as well. Glenn was sitting with Maggie, looking comfortable. He smiled to her when he saw her, dissipating her dark mood slightly and allowing her to smile back. At least someone was happy. She looked over to the barn, watching as Andrea and T-Dog began to make their way back toward the house.

"What's going on here?" she finally asked, looking down to Glenn and Maggie. She hadn't really had time to get to know Maggie, but she trusted her.

"Well, Shane and Dale are off somewhere, Rick went with Hershel for a while and Andrea and T-Dog are on watch at the barn. Where's Daryl?"

"Talking to Carol," she explained easily, looking off toward the distance as the sun began its descent toward the horizon. Now that she knew of the walkers in the barn, she dreaded night time more than she ever had in her life before. She always used to love the night; she loved the air that cooled down and the quiet that came with everyone else in the area going to sleep. It was her own time and now she didn't even have that.

"How's your leg?" Maggie asked suddenly, watching as Jamie continuously leaned off her bad leg and shifted where she stood.

"As good as can be with a four inch cut," she answered honestly, twisting her leg slightly to try and move the joint about. "Never did get to thank you; I heard you helped a lot. So, thank you." Maggie smiled faintly and nodded her head. Jamie was someone that seemed to bounce around a lot, never having one specific place, job or person to be with. She knew the relationship between her and Daryl, but she also knew that Daryl wasn't the type to be tied down to one place. He moved around, too, just in a different way. Daryl moved about to try and get away from everyone, but there was almost some kind of gravitational pull that brought him back to Jamie—and inevitably, the group.

"It's no problem."

Jamie turned her attention to Glenn, seeing that he was watching Maggie the entire time. "Nice hat, Glenn," she teased, seeing him blush once more and pull the fishing cap off his head. It was clearly Dale's hat, one that she had seen him wear constantly while sitting up on top of the RV on lookout. She couldn't stop herself from laughing softly at him, knowing that it was embarrassing and that it was also the fault of the woman beside him that he didn't have his own cap.

"Why don't you go get your baseball hat, I'll wash it for you," Maggie suggested, also smiling in amusement. Glenn grinned and nodded before rising to his feet.

"Hey, what's going on?" T-Dog asked loudly as he and Andrea approached, drawing everyone's attention to them. Jamie turned to face them when she noticed that neither looked happy about something. Glenn stopped walking toward the camp to answer.

"Where is everyone? Rick and I were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago to look for Sophia," Andrea answered, looking between Glenn and Jamie. Jamie frowned at her words and wondered what Hershel could have been doing that made Rick hours late. Rick was one of the few that wanted desperately to continue looking for Sophia, he wouldn't slack off voluntarily.

"Yea you were," Daryl called, nearly making Jamie jump when she hadn't heard him behind her. "What the hell?" She looked over her shoulder to where he and Carol were approaching, the woman looking much better than the last time she had seen her. Clearly, the talk between them had helped to lighten her spirits somewhat.

"Rick told us he was going out," Carol added on, the upset of the news clear on her face and in her voice.

"Damn it, isn't anybody taking this seriously?" he demanded, looking back around the property for any sign of the other man. Jamie looked back from where they had come and felt her heart sink at the sight that met her.

Shane was marching up the path with the bag of guns over his shoulder, looking aggravated and motivated. It wasn't rocket science to know that he was about to do something very stupid and it included guns, walkers and a rickety old barn. She wasn't sure, however, if she disliked the idea of shooting down all of the walkers or not. Yes, it could put them on bad terms with Hershel, but she wanted the ability to sleep without fear.

Daryl's attention turned to Shane as well, "Ah, here we go. What's all this?" he asked once Shane was next to him, holding out a shotgun.

"You with me, man?" Shane just asked, waiting for Daryl to take the gun. Jamie straightened up in attention as Daryl's hand closed around the gun. Things were about to start. "Time to grow up!" He declared, moving over to Jamie next and pulling out her sniper rifle. She looked at it for a moment, unsure. Before he had a chance to move it away, she hooked her hand in the strap and pulled it back to herself. It was strange, the immense sense of security that came to her immediately once the gun was back in her grasp. She hadn't realized it until that moment, but the lack of a gun had a deep feeling of unease constantly swirling about inside her gut.

"I thought we couldn't carry?" T-Dog asked, taking the gun that Shane offered him.

"Yea, well, we can and we have to. Now, it was one thing standing around here pickin' daisies when we thought this place was safe but now we know it ain't," he said loudly, making sure that everyone could hear him. Jamie's stomach tightened in worry and anticipation; she knew what was coming. It was time to take care of the walkers in the barn. Either the dead went, or they did.

"My dad will make you leave tonight," Maggie warned, raising her voice at Shane.

"Daryl," Jamie started cautiously as she approached him, keeping her sniper pointed at the ground. He looked to her with just as much emotion in his eyes. He didn't want to leave the farm yet, but he also knew that it wasn't right to leave the walkers alive. "Things are about to get completely fucked up, aren't they?" she asked softly, nearly pressed against his body so that no one else could hear.

"I have a feelin' things already are," he answered, watching her carefully.

Jamie sighed softly, looking over her shoulder to where Lori was walking across the porch from the back of the house. "Lori asked me if I had slept with Rick earlier," she explained, having to keep a hold on his arm when he moved to step away in shock and to—no doubt—confront Lori. "I may have cussed her out pretty badly, so things aren't exactly going to be pretty around here. Walkers or no walkers."

"She called you a fuckin' whore?" Daryl growled out in low tones, looking feral.

"Oh, shit," T-Dog swore, all conversations going silent. Jamie turned around in order to look at what the problem was, her blood freezing in her veins when she caught sight of the guys on the other side of the field, pulling walkers along by poles. Shane ran passed her suddenly, making a mad dash toward where Rick was helping Hershel and Jimmy to pull a couple of walkers along toward the barn.

Jamie wasn't able to run like the others but watched carefully as Shane ran right up around Rick and Hershel, Jimmy standing between them, and started yelling. The others all ran right behind him, Daryl included, and stopped short of where Shane had forced the others to a stop. She tried to make her way over quickly, but it was a bit of a distance to cover and she was limping at best.

Jamie jolted to a stop as Shane starting firing off rounds at the woman that was at the end of the pole Hershel was carrying, yelling out about how she couldn't have survived it she had been  _sick_  or  _alive_. It was not good, she knew, and she just wished he would shoot it. She didn't feel repulsed at the sight of walkers anymore, but she felt a deep rooted fear for her life whenever she was so close to one. Without further hesitation, Shane marched right up to the woman and shot her through the head. Unlike the rest of the shots, this time she collapsed.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's  _gone_!" he finished, looking directly at Carol as he yelled out. Jamie felt the urge to slap him again and sped up her pace until she had walked passed Carol, Lori and Carl and was standing next to Daryl. "Enough living next to a barn full of things trying to kill us;  _enough_! Rick, it ain't like it was before."

"Shane, stop!" Jamie screamed as he began to beat against the chains that were holding the barn doors closed, trying to move past Daryl. He held his arm out, though, and prevented her from moving any further. "Stop!" This was not the way things should end; Hershel should not have to watch, on his knees, as the people that he cared about and loved were massacred.

The doors began to open, though, and she knew that it was too late.

A male walker was the first to emerge, pushing opening the doors with a determination to  _eat_. Jamie couldn't bring herself to raise her gun, and instead was left to stand and watch as Daryl, Andrea, T-Dog, Glenn and Shane began to fire at the walkers that rushed free, one by one taking them all to the ground. Maggie held onto Hershel's shoulder as they were forced to watch them all go down, falling to the floor as corpses should be. Dead.

Her eyes strayed to where Rick was standing, helpless to stop it. He could do nothing more than watch as all that he had tried to prevent took place, tearing apart their chances of remaining on the farm. It seemed like forever before the firing stopped, guns lowering to point to the ground as no more walkers stepped out of the doors. Bodies littered the ground as blood oozed from bullet holes in their heads, bite marks marring every one of them with their flesh rotting off their bones.

The rasping continued, though, and guns were raised again. Jamie's eyes lifted to the darkness of the barn doors, watching for the next walker that would come out. It would meet the same end as all of the others, destined to meet the fresh air with a bullet in the brain before it laid with every other dead body upon the ground. Her hand clutched the sniper, even though her skin was slicked with sweat.

Small hands grasped at the door, balancing shaking limbs as dirtied feet came into view. Jamie nearly dropped the gun at the sight of the familiar little girl that appeared, her blue shirt torn and bloodied with dead eyes looking up to them. She snarled at them, baring blackened teeth. For the first time in a while, she felt sick to her stomach at the sight of a walker.

There was no movement from anyone to fire their guns as Sophia stood in the opening of the barn.

"Sophia!" Carol cried out, cueing Jamie to turn just in time to catch the woman around to waist and stop her from running any closer. She continued to struggle against her, prompting Daryl to move over to them as well and wrap an arm around the trembling, crying woman. She fell to her knees, taking Jamie down with her, as she reached out toward her daughter. "Sophia!"

Sophia began to limp forward, manoeuvring around the bodies of the fallen and toward the living. Jamie wrapped her arms around Carol's shoulders to keep her in place, wishing that she could block it all out. She didn't want Carol to have to see Sophia in such a state, and she definitely didn't want to see her get shot in the head. She looked up to Daryl, searching for an answer, but he was watching Sophia with remorseful eyes.

"My baby," Carol cried softly, reaching passed Jamie as though she would be able to touch Sophia, as though she would have her daughter back. Jamie eyes burned with tears for the second time that day, but it was not out of pleasure and happiness. Her arms tightened around Carol as she tried to take all of her pain on as her own, wishing to end the suffering that the woman was feeling. There truly was no forgiveness in this new world.

Rick moved first, breaking the stillness of the group. Her eyes moved over to him instead, knowing that it was over. Sophia looked at him, almost a child again, but it was known not to be true. Jamie wrapped her arm around Carol's neck to try and cover her eyes.

"Don't watch," she whispered, her own tears beginning to course down her cheeks and leave clean trails through the sweat and dirt. "Close your eyes, hun."

The gun fired, and Sophia fell. The only sound that remained in the clearing before the barn was Carol's sobs, the shock too much for anyone else to completely understand. Carol fell against Jamie, no longer able to keep her form up as she called out her dead daughter's name, over and over again, a prayer to have her back. Jamie remembered the day that they had found the church and Carol had prayed to God for him to forgive all that she had wished for in the past; she just wanted her daughter back.

She looked up to Daryl again, watching as he kneeled down behind Carol and wrapped an arm around her waist, carefully trying to pull her up and onto her feet. "Don't look," he ordered, trying to get Carol's attention away from the corpse. "Come on, get up. Don't look." Jamie remained sitting on the ground, her shirt soaked with Carol's tears, and watched as Carol pushed herself away from Daryl harshly and stumbled off toward the camp as her sobs echoed back to them.

Rick tried to stop Hershel's other daughter, Beth, as she ran over toward the bodies, trying to find one specific person. Jamie bowed her head as she heard the sobs of the young girl, hating the moment that was going on. The last time she would ever see her mother was in such a gruesome state, dead and half rotted away.

Her screams breached the air as the woman grabbed at her, not yet dead, and forced everyone into action. Not one person could keep themselves still as the woman tried to pull Beth down and bite her. Jamie pulled herself to her feet and stumbled forward, raising her gun as Glenn tried to pull the walker's hands away from Beth without getting bitten himself. She lifted the scope to her eye, took aim for the temple and fired.

The woman dropped back to the ground, releasing her hold on the young girl and leaving a corpse behind. Glenn quickly jumped back and looked over to Jamie in surprise, as did many others, before they watched as she lowered her gun and limped away, making her way slowly back to camp.

She didn't make it very far, not even to the campsite before she had to collapse against a tree and throw up the contents of her stomach. The acid burned her mouth and left a vile taste on her tongue, but she knew it was better than remaining sick. There were many things that she had seen since the outbreak, but to watch a once innocent, young child be shot through the head because she would have eaten them was something that pushed her too far.

"Hey, are you okay?" Rick's voice called carefully before a hand lay out on her back gently. She shook her head in answer, not trusting herself to speak so soon. "Come on, let's get you some water," Rick encouraged gently, taking the sniper from her hand and slowly leading her back toward the house. She had to stop at one point when she felt that she was going to be sick again, but he was patient and soon guided her up the steps.

"What's wrong?" Glenn asked in surprise when she was led in, immediately moving over to sit down.

"She threw up. Can you get her a glass of water?" Rick asked. Glenn nodded quickly and moved away, Maggie following after him. "Jay, I've got to go and talk to Hershel. Will you be alright?"

"Yea, just nausea. You go, straighten some things out. Good luck," she mumbled back. Rick looked at her in concern for a moment more. Her face was pale, nearly as pale as when she had been in immense pain back at the camp because of her back, and there was a cold sweat breaking out over her skin. She was shivering beneath his hold and he knew that it wasn't a good thing to leave her by herself. Glenn soon appeared again, carrying a glass of water and quickly giving it to her. Her hands shook nearly too much and Rick had to place a hand over hers as she took a drink to keep it still.

"Maggie, can you stay with her; Glenn, please go get Daryl for me," Rick asked as he placed the water aside on the table. Glenn didn't hesitate before he rushed from the house, heading straight for the RV. Rick reluctantly left Jamie in Maggie's hands, heading out to find Hershel. Jamie leaned her head against Maggie's side, shivering, as Maggie pushed the sweaty strands of her hair away from her face.

"I imagine you've seen a lot of people die…why did this affect you so much?" she asked softly, looking down at her.

"All of the other people I knew that died were adults; they had had some semblance of life before they died. They had lived through experiences already. Sophia…she was just a child that hadn't even explored the world yet. I've had to kill children before when they tried to eat me, but I didn't know any of them before this. Sophia," Jamie's voice cracked as tears threatened to start falling again. "She loved to draw in colouring books and wanted to meet new kids at a safe haven that we never found."


	31. Pandora

"Go be with Carol," Jamie ordered, although she wasn't in such a good condition to be trying as sweat dripped off her chin and Hershel hovered behind her, a stethoscope pressed against her back as he listened to her heart and her breathing. Daryl glared at her in opposition, crossing his arms over his chest. "I told you already, I'm not sick. It's just what happened wasn't something that I was ready to see. Please, Carol needs the support more than I do right now."

"I ain't just leaving you here," Daryl grumbled out, looking back at Hershel for a minute.

"There's nothing that can be done, her body's fighting off the shock. A cold cloth to fight off the fever and a lot of water is all I can tell you," Hershel said as he looked down at the once darkly tanned woman. She looked like a ghost of her former self as she sat on his couch, wrapped up in a blanket and shivering like a kid with the flu.

"Are you sure that there's nothing else that could be wrong?" Rick asked carefully in concern, holding his black sheriff hat in his hands and beginning to spin in around as he fidgeted. Hershel let out a sigh and pulled the stethoscope away from Jamie's back and took a step backward.

"There's nothing more I can tell you. She wasn't bit or scratched so she can't be infected and she's been eating and drinking the same as all of us," he answered back honestly.

"See?" Jamie asked as she looked up at the two men. "You're needed elsewhere. I ain't going nowhere so don't worry. Now, get going before I am forced to get up and kick you out." Daryl and Rick both smirked faintly at her attitude before they each nodded and moved to leave. Rick had to go and give the news on Hershel's final decision and Daryl had been ordered by Jamie to stay with Carol until the graves were done.

"Get some sleep, Angel," Daryl ordered to her as he knelt down to press a kiss against her temple, holding there for a moment before he turned swiftly and left; his posture was tense and his shoulders were squared. Rick patted her knee before following suit, leaving her alone with Hershel and Maggie. Maggie helped her to lie down on the couch, tucking a pillow under her head and laying a cold, wet cloth over her forehead. It didn't take long before she was out like a doused flame.

Rick made his way back toward the barn, watching as the remainder of their group all crowded together near the bodies, trying to think up what to do. Carl and Dale were beginning to make their way toward them and Rick quickly put his sheriff hat on Carl's head, smiling to him as best he could before he continued on over to Lori. His eyes scanned over the damage that had been done, the dozen bodies lying about on the ground and quickly drawing flies.

"Want us to start burying?" T-Dog asked first.

"We need a service," Andrea added in, "Carol would want that."

Instead of Rick, as it was expected by everyone else, Lori was the one to take charge next. "Let's dig a grave for Sophia, and Annette and Shawn. Over by those trees." She didn't sound sure of herself as she tried to guide the others, so accustomed to Rick being the one that took control of any situation. "And we'll need a truck to move the bodies."

Shane moved off to get the truck as Andrea announced that they would burn the rest of the bodies, burying only the ones that they loved. Rick couldn't bring himself to speak, allowing the others to do what they thought was best. He wasn't sure anymore, what it was that he could do for the group. He knew that it would be best to stay on the farm, but Shane seemed to be opposing him at every turn and it was beginning to grate on him.

"What happened to Jamie?" Andrea asked before Rick to become distracted. "I saw you taking her into the house."

"She's sick; Hershel says that her body's in shock. She'll be alright, just needs to take some time. She didn't want anyone to waste time staying with her since she was just going to be sleeping so she sent Daryl and I back out here," Rick answered as easily as he could, looking back toward the camp. He knew that Daryl would be back in the RV with Carol at the moment.

"Sick?" T-Dog asked, the worry that he felt clearly known.

"She wasn't bit or anything, she let Daryl check to ease worries," Rick confirmed, seeing both Andrea and T-Dog relax again.

Jamie felt like she had been down for hours when she woke up the next time, seeing that Maggie had left already. Instead, it was Carl that sat by the window, looking out and watching everything that was going on. Feeling that her fever was gone, because she felt like she was roasting under the wool blanket, Jamie pushed herself into a sitting position with a faint groan. Carl jumped at the sound, getting to his feet quickly.

"What'd I miss?" she asked quietly, looking up at him. He seemed more at ease when he realized that she wasn't a walker—the way that she had been sleeping could very well have been compared to the dead.

"Not much; they've already done the burials and Beth fainted earlier. Maggie says she's in shock like you," he said softly, sitting back down. Jamie sighed quietly and pulled her long hair over one shoulder to try and let some cool air get at her sweat soaked neck.

"This is too much," she whispered, looking down at the floor and messaging her sore knee gently. Without waiting any further, hating that she had been down for so long as it was, she pushed herself up onto her feet. She stumbled for a moment when she got a rush of dizziness but refused to go down and was soon making her way toward the kitchen to get a new glass of water.

"Hey, Jamie," Rick called, taking her by surprise. "How're you feeling?" he asked as he stepped up to her, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead before she had a chance to say anything. He must have been satisfied with her temperature because he pulled his hand away and didn't ask anything else.

Her reply was a tired shrug of her shoulders. "I hear Beth fainted, is everything alright?"

Rick let out a loud sigh, looking to the door of the kitchen. "Hershel's gone missing; he's got all his wife's things packed up and Shane found an empty flask on his dresser. Glenn knows the bar that Maggie mentioned and he and I are going to go into town to try and find him before anything happens. Beth needs him right now." Jamie placed the empty water glass on the table and turned her full attention to him.

"I'm coming, too," she declared, holding up a hand to stop him before he could say anything against it. "I'm feeling a lot better and I can take care of myself. I am not going to just sit around here while I'm recovering. Besides, we're taking a vehicle in to pick up Hershel, even if we ran into walkers they'd be no trouble." Rick looked conflicted, wanting to deny her. "I don't care what you say, I'm going," Jamie said sternly, knowing that he was getting ready to turn her down.

Sighing loudly once again, he nodded his head in understanding. A broad smile came to her lips when she saw the motion and tapped him once on the cheek. "See, that wasn't so hard." Turning to continue getting herself some water she didn't hear Rick move out of the room, but knew that he probably wouldn't linger. Now, Daryl is going to be a while different story of convincing.

" _Fuck no_."

"Daryl," Jamie started, moving to follow after him when he marched past her to head back toward the house. "I'm not a child and you're not about to treat me like one. Now, you've got your things that you can do and I need mine. Come on, just let me do this. We're going to pick up a slightly depressed old man, what exactly can go wrong with that?"

"Walkers," he snapped back, turning to face her.

"I've got two men there with me that can shoot just fine and we're taking a car so it's not that bad," she argued, looking over to where Rick was standing in the open door of the car they were taking. Daryl looked between them briefly before he turned to move over to where Rick was standing instead, completely bypassing Glenn and Maggie. Jamie moved to catch up, going as far as jogging lightly on her leg but making sure not to do so much as to injure herself any worse.

"I swear, if you don't bring her back-"

"I'll watch out for her, Daryl. We're just going in, picking up Hershel, and coming back," Rick answered, meeting Daryl's hard stare head on. Jamie moved over to them, grabbed the back of Daryl's pants and began to pull him away from Rick, allowing the other man to breathe. Daryl didn't fight against her and was soon facing her once more, standing a couple of yards away.

"I'll be fine, Daryl," she whispered softly as she pulled him down to her level with his forehead resting against hers. His hands moved to her hips out of natural reaction and he exhaled deeply through his nose, the warm air brushing against her face. "Please, if I stay here any longer I'm going to either slap Lori or kill Shane, both have bad outcomes."

Daryl couldn't stop the laugh that rose in his chest and he nodded his head, knowing that she spoke only the truth. She pressed a kiss against his lips while he was still close enough before pulling away and jogging carefully over to the vehicle. Daryl watched her jog with hidden concern in his eyes, but he also knew that she was a hard headed woman and didn't like to be babysat by people. Even if it was him.

Jamie slid into the backseat since Glenn had already called 'shotgun' and she scooted herself over to the center, placing her gun on the seat beside her and looked back up to the house. It was a pain to get in and out because the car didn't have back doors and she was forced to manoeuvre around the two front seats. Maggie was standing on the porch, her arms crossed and a frown on her face. That was maybe the third time that Jamie had seen her in that exact position and she would admit it was oddly disturbing.

"Your girlfriend's a guard-dog," she teased quietly, looking over to Glenn. He balked slightly, shocked at what she had said, and Jamie let out a breathy laugh. Rick was glad to hear that she was back to normal, but didn't say anything on the matter as he listened to Jamie lightly poke and tease Glenn, knowing that she was simply trying to keep the mood up. They weren't exactly going into town for shits and giggles.

They had already reached the outskirts of the town before Glenn spoke up.

"She told me she loved me," he finally admitted, immediately drawing Jamie's interest enough for her to lean forward in her seat to put herself between the two front seats. Glenn's eyes flickered over to her quickly before he looked up to Rick again.  _Ah_ , she thought,  _man talk_.

Leaning back once more, she just listened to what Rick had to say, noddinf her head along with everything along the way. He was right; Maggie was smart enough to understand her own feelings. It was amusing, though, to hear a man's point of view. Even with Rick trying to calm him down Jamie could see that he was concerned and knew where he was coming from—being a girl herself—but she also knew that it wasn't all that much to worry about.

"Dude, this isn't a soap-opera. Women don't flip out when a guy doesn't say 'I love you' back the first time. I told Daryl it dozens of times before he finally got to balls to say it back. Words don't always mean a whole hell of a lot; you've told her that you want to keep her safe and protect her. You've  _shown_  her that. That's really what counts," Jamie explained, keeping her eyes closed and leaning back against the seat.

"When did Daryl finally tell you?" Rick asked curiously.

"It was completely random. I had just had a really bad day at work and had said 'fuck it, I'm going to sleep' to everything. He called me at one in the morning, which provoked me to no end, but before I could bite his ear off for it he said 'I love you. Thought you might want to hear that' and hung up," she told them, grinning from ear to ear and laughing softly at the memory. Glenn couldn't stop himself form chuckling in the front seat, looking back at her.

"When did you tell him?"

"When I first realized I actually loved him," she answered back honestly. Leaning forward, she rested her arms on the console between the seats, looking forward to the road. "Rick, are you seriously obeying the laws of the road?" she asked in surprise as he kept to the right of the yellow lines.

"It's all the hills," he defended. "If by chance we do run into someone else then this way we don't have to worry about a collision."

"Trust me," she drawled out slowly, looking over to him. "They'd hear us coming a mile away." Silence fell in the car and they could all hear the rickety sound of the motor, not only loud because they were in the car but just plain  _loud_.

Lori rushed over toward one of the furthest points of Hershel's fields, where the remains of a stone building were all that was left there. Daryl sat at the base one of the walls, a cluster of straight sticks beside him as he pulled his knife along the end of one, sharpening it. She knew that he was making himself new arrows, that didn't take long to figure out, and she was slightly unsettled at the angry way he handled his knife.

"Move into the suburbs?" she called when she was close enough, but he never stopped the rapid movements of his blade along the stick. "Listen, Beth's in some kind of catatonic shock. We need Hershel," she explained as she walked up to him, stopping a few feet short.

"Yea, so what?"

"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back," Lori answered, falling into a crouch so that she was a closer level to him. He didn't appear to care either way, though, and continued with his work. She wondered how it was that Jamie could stand to be around him all the time. "Daryl?" she asked when he didn't show any sign of caring. He looked up sharply, finally drawing his eyes from his blade and stick.

"Your bitch went window shopping, you want him fetch him yourself," he snapped back. His irritation and anger from the day was starting to bubble over and the fact that she was in his face after he knew what she had said to Jamie only made things worse for her. "I got better things to do."

"What's the matter with you? Why would you be so selfish?" Before the question was even completely said Daryl had bolted to his feet, turning to face her with a glare set in place.

"Selfish?" he demanded, "listen to me, Olive-Oil, I's out there looking for that little girl every single day. Nearly lost  _Jamie_  to a fucking horse,  _I_  took a bullet and an arrow in the process; don't be telling me about getting my hands dirty!" He was yelling and pointing at her with the knife in his hand, leaving her nervous and unsettled to have the sharp object swung in her direction. He scoffed in a mock laugh of amusement before moving to sit back down. "You want those two idiots, have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people."

"What about Jamie, she's out there, too."

"Now you act like you care?" he growled out, looking up at her again from his returned sitting position. "Don't you act like you care about her, accusing her of fuckin' your husband like you did. Don't you fucking  _dare_  act like you care! Go back to your own fucking marriage problems; keep 'em away from me and mine!"

Lori didn't know what else to say, especially now that the conversation had taken a very different turn than she had been expecting. Daryl had already resumed his work and she knew that she was not going to be getting anything else from him. Turning to head back toward the camp, she felt shaken after the exchange. It was not only the knife swinging around or the yelling, but the fact that he had so openly yelled at her about her earlier accusation to Jamie.

Inside the bar, the other three weren't fairing much better with trying to get Hershel up and moving. Glenn and Jamie stayed back and out of the conversation, leaving things up to Rick as he had a one on one with the older man. Hershel tried to defy them at every turn, but Rick seemed to know exactly what to say. Hershel knew deep down already that the other man was right, but he couldn't bring himself from the darkness that he had slipped into in order to realize that.

"You know what the truth is?" Rick asked finally, leaning closer to Hershel as he spoke. " _Nothing has changed_. Death is death, it's always been there," he explained, pulling himself up again until he stood at his full height and looked away from Hershel. Jamie silently agreed with him, knowing that things weren't entirely different. The world had suffered through many sicknesses, this was no different. "Whether it's from heart attack, cancer or a  _walker,_  what's the difference?"

Jamie looked over to Glenn, seeing that he was trying to show in any way that he was not there and end up disrupting the conversation. It appeared that Hershel was finally starting to listen and they didn't want to chance breaking the direction of conversation between the two elders. Jamie adjust her seat on the counter and looked down at her gun, knowing that there were several more bullets in her pockets and in the glove compartment of the car. She couldn't help but think back to the first time she had fired the gun, back in the city of Atlanta.

Not the best memory.

"You know what; this isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them," Rick was saying, looking down at Hershel carefully. Jamie looked between them before she felt her stomach clench when Hershel just knocked back the rest of the drink in his glass, leaving Rick to straighten up and turn away slightly. They were all surprised, though, when he turned the glass upside down and slammed in onto the counter.

_Done._

Rick placed a hand on his shoulder in relief, Jamie and Glenn passing one another a quick smile. Before they had a chance to depart, though, the door they hand entered through swung open. Light flooded the darkened space of the bar and Jamie squinted her eyes to try and see who was standing there, her hand tightening on her gun. Two figures stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the light.

"Son of a bitch," one of them said, before he turned toward his friend, "they're alive."

Jamie looked over to Rick slowly as she was quickly filled with dread. He motioned for her to move back behind the counter, his face serious. She didn't take the time to hesitate and spun around on the counter, carefully dropping down to land on her good leg and blocking herself off from the others. The two men strode in as if they owned the place, looking cocky and overjoyed.

"How about a drink?" the same man asked, looking to each of them in turn. Jamie didn't want to make any kind of a scene and discretely got shot glasses for them all, even though she had no intention of drinking it. Any other time, sure, but not when her entire body was on high alert. She should have just stayed back with Daryl. God knows he's not exactly having the best day.

Rick used the bottle that Hershel had already had opened and poured the two newcomers each a shot before he poured one for himself, Glenn and Jamie. He met her eyes when he was standing before her, the larger new comer a couple of feet away at the counter. She nodded her head as discretely as she could, holding onto her gun below the counter and taking the shot glass in the other. He moved away again, stepping over to where Hershel was standing.

"I'm Dave," the skinnier of the two men introduced, sitting back at one of the tables. Jamie didn't completely care who he was. She wanted him gone; she had known a lot of guys through her time alive and she knew one that she couldn't trust when she saw one. "That scrawny looking douche-bag over there is Tony."

Tony laughed, leaning back against the counter Jamie was standing behind. "Eat me, Dave."

"Hey, maybe someday I will. We met on I-95 coming out of Philie," he explained, picking up the shot that Rick had poured for him.

"I'm Glenn," the Asian said in introduction, waving shortly to the two newest bar occupants. Jamie didn't speak, watching them all cautiously as she kept her hand over present on her gun. "It's nice to meet some new people."

"Rick Grimes," Rick said neck, handing Glenn his shot glass.

"What about you, not having one?" Dave asked when Hershel refused to take anything to drink from Rick, leaving Dave curious. Hershel just replied with, "I just quit" before going quiet again. "Well," Dave started again, "You have a unique sense of timing, my friend."

"This is Hershel, he lost people today. A lot of them," Rick explained as his voice lost the lightness from before. Jamie felt her stomach twist as she remembered when the barn had been opened up. It was like Pandora's box. When she looked up again, Dave's eyes were on her. She repressed the urge to shiver in disgust at the look that he was giving her.

"I'm truly sorry to hear that," he said, not taking his eyes off her for a moment. When he did, he lifted his shot in cheers and spoke directly to Hershel this time. "To better days and new friends, and to our dead. May they be in a better place." Jamie waited until everyone else was taking back their shots before she dumped hers under the counter and placed the newly emptied glass back on the counter, none the wiser. "What about you, sweetheart, who're you?" Dave asked as he slid his shot onto the table, looking over to her.

"Jay," she answered shortly, saying and doing nothing more. Dave didn't look pleased at the lack of proper response but didn't chose to say something and instead reached over the table to pick up the bottle that Rick had placed down to pour himself another shot. In doing so, he revealed the gun he had tucked into the back of his pants.

Rick eyed the gun wearily, waiting until Dave did something.

"Not bad, huh?" Dave asked as he pulled the gun free and showed it to Rick in a non-threatening way. "I got it off a cop."

"I'm a cop," Rick answered back blandly.

"This one was already dead."


	32. Don't Blink

Jamie leaned against the counter, taking the pressure off her leg. She wished that the conversations would stop and they could leave, but now the boys were starting to get into locations. It wasn't safe for them to leave so long as they were curious about where they were staying and so they were stuck at the bar until they knew it was safe. Her eyes moved over to the door constantly as she watched it quickly begin to darken outside, night time approaching disturbingly fast.

"We're with a larger group," Hershel answered as Dave continued to pick and prod to try and find where they were staying. It was clear that all of them were on alert at that moment, careful with all that they said. "Out scouting, thought we could use a drink."

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit?"

"You came at kind of a bad conversation," Jamie said suddenly, causing Tony to jump at her voice. He clearly hadn't been expecting her to say anything and had more than likely forgotten that she was even standing behind the counter he sat at.

"Well, we're kind of thinking of setting up around here. Is it safe?" Dave asked, looking briefly at Jamie. She refused to meet his eyes and instead was looking over to Rick, Glenn and Hershel. She was very aware of the fact that she was by herself while the others were all grouped together, she was divided from them and it was more unsettling than she wished to admit. She wished that Daryl was there, being that abrasive and overprotective male that he was and threatening Tony and Dave.

"It can be," Glenn answered, "we, well; I've killed a couple walkers around here."

"Walkers? Is that what you call them?" Rick nodded his head silently, watching as Dave frowned in thought.

_Daryl, please come and get us_ , Jamie prayed silently as her leg began to ache from standing for so long. The rest of the group had to know that they hadn't come back and surely would send someone after them. Jamie didn't know how long she could be able to stay standing and he was sure that Rick was desperate to get Hershel back to the farm before anything happened with Beth's condition to worsen it.

"So, are you guys set up on the outskirts or somethin'?" Dave asked, looking over to Jamie. "You and you're group? Perhaps, that new development?" Jamie didn't do anything to give him a clue, just blinked at him with a blank face. She knew that if she did speak she would give something away and she would put them all in danger. Rick seemed relieved that she had decided to stay back from the conversation, but Dave was easily getting annoyed.

"Trailer park? Farm?" Tony asked as he pushed up onto his feet and walked away from the counter, completely ignorant to anything around him. Jamie watching his movements with her eyes until she noticed what he had as his intentions. Looking off to the side, she grimaced slightly and looked off to the back wall of the building. She had been around when Daryl decided to pee in the woods or the odd time in the bathroom when she was in the shower but she hated the through of another man doing such a thing so openly.

"You shy, sweetheart?" Dave asked teasingly. She glared over at him sharply, her hazel eyes looking dark.

"Her fiancé's back with the rest of the group," Rick explained, feeling that it was okay to say that. "Not exactly open to other men." Dave grinned, bringing worry to both Rick and Jamie. Glenn looked over to her, concerned that she would try and kill Dave if she got the chance.

"So, I take it no sharing?" Dave mocked, grinning over at Jamie. The lewd comments caused her to glare all the more as she refrained from picking up her shot glass and firing it at his head. She always did have good hand eye coordination. She knew that Rick was sending her warning looks, but also looks of concern. Her patience was thinner than a thread and it was getting ready to snap.

"Not unless you'd like him to cut your balls off with his hunting knife and shove them up your ass until you choke on them," she growled back, wiping the grin from his face. She thought back to the knife tucked into her boot and knew that she could hold her own if the scenario ever came up. She also knew, however, that the guys all had her back and she wasn't alone on the matter.

"So, you on a farm?" Dave asked, turning back to Rick. Tony was singing the 'oh McDonald' song as he relieved himself on the floor of the room, leaving Jamie with a rush of anger. The world may have gone to shit, but common courtesy apparently hadn't stuck with him at all. "Is it safe? You got food, water?"

"You got some coos?" Tony asked, completely forgetting that Jamie was standing just on the other side of the room. Rick straightened up as he looked over to where she had lifted herself to her full height, lifting a hand to prevent her from doing something she would regret; namely with the gun that was under her hand. "Man, I haven't had a piece of ass in weeks."

"Ah, listen; pardon my friend. City kids; they got…no tact," Dave apologized, glancing over to Jamie when he noticed Rick's halting movement. "No disrespect. So, please, Glenn-"

"I think we've said enough," Rick interrupted, taking everyone by surprise. The limit had been reached; the two men had already crossed a line that could not be uncrossed. Dave didn't take it well, even though he was very good with hiding it. Jamie could see the subtle change in him after Rick continued to shoot him down and turn him away from the choice of bunking with them at the farm. Tony walked back over to join them, holding the strap to his gun as he looked between Rick and his friend.

Dave went as far as trying to gain their sympathy and then changed tactic again and tried to connect with them about hardships. Jamie didn't let her hand leave the gun under the counter or her eyes leaving the two men that were before them. They had them outmanned and outgunned, but that didn't always matter. Rick was forced to step back when Tony began to yell at him, threatening to kill all of them but Dave stepped into the fight to calm it down.

Jamie's entire body tensed when he moved to jump up over the counter that she was standing behind, forcing her to move out of the way. She pushed the sniper into hiding beneath the smallest counter, where there were no bottles in the way. She didn't allow herself to move far, though, as she watched him carefully from the corner of her eye.

"Hey, babe, how are you?" Dave asked once he was standing behind the counter with her, grinning. She scowled back, leaning her arms on the counter in a way to seem she was relaxed. Her entire back was tensed up though and her arm muscles were straining not to reach for her weapons. Tony and Dave had Rick centered in, each with guns. In a way to show innocence, Dave pulled the gun out from the back of his hands and placed it gently on the counter. "We're just friends having a drink, alright?"

Jamie looked down at the gun that was only inches from her arm and knew that it wouldn't be hard to snatch and fire. She looked up to Rick, seeing that he had his hand down near the holster on his hip and his eyes flicked between her and Dave.  _Don't move_. Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, she cringed at the smell of urine that hung in the air because of Tony.

When Dave moved to retrieve a bottle from under the counter, Rick's hand snapped to his gun and Jamie's hands tensed in preparation to grab the gun that sat on the counter. She wouldn't be able to get to hers fast enough because she had to push it back far in order to hide it. Dave just straightened back up, though, holding a new bottle.

"Hey, look at that," he said with a broad smile. Rick allowed his hand to relax away from his gun as Dave began to unscrew the bottle and filled up Jamie's empty shot glass. "You gotta understand we can't stay out there. You know what it's like," he said carefully, putting Jamie's glass down in front of her, filled up again.

"We do," Rick agreed, "but the farm's too crowded as it is, I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."

Dave's smile faded away as he looked down at the counter. "Keep looking?" he repeated, the disappointment in his voice worrying Jamie. "How do you suggest we do that?"

Rick shrugged his shoulders, acting completely nonchalant. "I don't know, I hear Nebraska's nice," he answered back, Jamie's eyes snapping up toward him. He looked over to her quickly before he once more returned his attention to the now laughing Pilipino. He repeated Rick's words, the smile never leaving his face. Glenn and Hershel stood aside the entire time as they watched, barely able to tell what had happened before there were two dead bodies on the floor.

Blood splattered across the left side of Jamie's face, neck and arm as she held the discharged gun in her hand. It was pointed just over Rick's shoulder, putting a bullet in Tony's brain. Dave's body fell beside her, Rick's gun having quickly taken aim and fired. Jamie had effectively snatched the gun from the counter as soon as Dave made a move for it and shot Tony dead between the eyes while Rick took care of the man at her side, blowing a hole through his head and spraying his blood all over her.

"What," Glenn gasped, unable to finish his sentence as he looked from one blood splatter to the other. Jamie looked at him for a moment before she picked up the shot she had been poured and knocked it back, then put the safety on the new gun she had acquired and leaned down to put it in the other boot before she moved to retrieve her sniper. Rick walked over to the counter, holding his hand out. She looked up at him for a moment before she reached across and took his hand, allowing him to pull her up and help her over the counter. "Holy shit."

"Let's head back," Hershel said suddenly, interrupting the silence in the bar. Rick moved over to quickly gather what he could from Tony, leaving Glenn to go and search Dave. Making their way toward the door, Jamie pulled the familiar strap of her rifle to her shoulder and made her way onward. Headlights shining through the fogged glass immediately gave a kick start to everyone and they all dove forward to get under the window.

" _Dave? Tony_?" a new voice called from outside after the sound of the moving wheels stopped, leaving the four inside breathing heavily as they tried to keep themselves as quiet as they could.

" _Is anyone where?"_

" _I swear, man, I heard shots_."

They stayed where they were quietly, Glenn and Rick shifting the curtains out of the way to look out for any sign that they were still there. Jamie stayed near the counter, out of view from the windows, and loaded her sniper and checked to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber of her new handgun. Rick soon motioned her over, leaving her to try and crouch her way over to them without using her left knee too much. They crouched in a group near the door, trying not to move and make the floorboards squeak.

"Why won't they leave?" Glenn whispered first.

"Would you?" Hershel returned in a lower voice, sounding as calm as ever. Although, after he had done surgery on them so many times it wasn't a surprise that he was able to stay cool under such situations. Jamie envied his abilities.

"We can't stay here any longer, let's head out the back; make a run to the car," Rick explained, looking between the three of them. They simultaneously nodded their heads and moved to rise up to head toward the back door.

The lights from the headlights were enough to cause her to pause, not wanting to be blinded again. She stood leaning against the doorframe in order to let her eyes adjust. The first sounds of gunshots pushed Glenn and Hershel back against the wall while Rick wrapped an arm around Jamie's waist and pulled her toward where he had been so that she wasn't out in the open as she had been before.

" _What happened_?"

" _Roamers, I nailed them_."

" _We can't find them but their car's still there_."

" _I've cleared all the other buildings. You guys get this one_?"

Jamie looked up to Rick, who held his hand to her mouth to stop her from saying anything. They men outside approached the building quickly. Glenn panicked when the door began to open and he quickly threw himself in front of it, slamming it closed again. Jamie closed her eyes as they were given away, knowing that there was no chance of them sneaking off now.

"Yo, someone in there?" one of the men called, leaving them all to sit still as they tried to think of what they could do. Jamie pulled Rick's hand from her mouth and pulled the handgun form her boot, motioning to Hershel. He tried to wave her away but she tossed the gun to him before he had the chance to resist further and was forced to catch it. "Yo, if someone's in there we don't want no trouble!"

Jamie looked up at Rick again and pointed a finger at him in silent warning, her way of telling him to keep his mouth shut. She could hear them begin to walk away, many of them beginning to doubt that anyone was in there as the main guy continued to call for them. Jamie looked into Rick's blue eyes before she glanced up at the fogged glass where there were shadows of the men revealed from the car headlights.

"They drew on us!" Rick called, getting a smack on the cheek from Jamie. He tried to silently convey that it was all he could do and Jamie glared at him, yelling at him in nearly inaudible whispers. She smacked him again in frustration before they both fell still, waiting for a reply.

"Dave and Tony in there?" the man outside asked, his voice back to the same distance as before. "They alive?"

"No," Rick answered, holding his hand up when Jamie went to smack him again to ward her off for the time being. "I had to," he explained in a hushed yell, getting a frustrated sigh from her in return. Glenn watched them in confusion, wondering if they realized that Jamie was pretty much straddling him as she leaned against his thigh. If Glenn hadn't known any better, he would have through that Rick and Jamie were a couple.

" _No, I'm not leaving_ ," the man was saying to his friends. " _I'm not going to go back and tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar_."

"Your friends drew on us," Rick yelled back. "They gave us now choice. I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wished we didn't have to but it's like that now, you know that. So let's just chalk this up to what it was; wrong place, wrong-"

The window above Glenn's head blew out as the men opened fire on them, shattering the windows and splintering the wood. Jamie swore colourfully as she ducked down as low as she could get without kissing Rick's boots. She rolled quickly to get into a more open area and rose to her feet, loading the gun as she went. She took aim in the direction of the cars headlights and fired, hearing glass shatter and some of the lights dim.

"Get out of here!" Rick yelled as he began to fire out the shattered window, letting Glenn scramble away from the door. Jamie's hands were clutching at the gun as she began to back away quickly, leaving Rick to duck down below the windows again. They were all divided once more. A sharp sound of breaking glass sounded from the back of the building, through the back exit, and Jamie turned to where Glenn was making his way toward the doors. She moved over toward the back slowly, still careful that she didn't get caught if anyone took more shots.

Thunder rumbled through the sky as Jamie pulled herself through the building to head toward the back entrance behind Glenn, the adrenaline flowing through her veins allowing her to walk without pain in her leg. The sound of gunshots coming from the back drew her into a quick jog, Rick rushing along behind her. Hershel was still standing in the entrance but Glenn was gone.

"What happened?" Jamie demanded as she moved up beside Hershel, looking at him expectantly.

"They fired. Must have hit Glenn, he's behind the dumpster, doesn't look like he's moving," Hershel explained, drawing attention over to Glenn. Jamie ignored the pained cries coming from the man on the grass that Hershel had shot and she quickly ducked out the door and made her way toward the dumpster as fast as she could, Rick and Hershel watching her back.

"Glenn!" she called out in a whisper, holding her sniper down. "Are you hit?"

"No," he answered quietly, leaning against the dumpster. Jamie ducked behind the garbage and looked to him once to make sure he was telling to truth before her eyes moved over to the only space they weren't covered from.

"The car's just down there, we're going home, alright? Everything will be fine," she assured, placing a hand on his knee before she leant over to look over to Hershel and Rick. "Are you good?"

"Yea," he answered hesitantly, clutching at the shotgun in his hands. "I'm good." Jamie moved to make her way out to the car, but pushed right back behind the dumpster when more shots were fired off. Glenn's back slammed against the metal when she pushed him, but neither said anything. When they thought that it was done, one of the guys pulled up in a truck and began to call to one of the others that were on the roof of another building.

"We gotta get out of here! This place is crawling with roamers!" Jamie looked around to where the guy was standing on the top of the building, deciding to take the chance of jumping. She flinched at the loud screams that came from him when he clearly did not make the jump. She could hear Glenn mumbling behind her. But now was their chance. The others were gone and who was left was too injured to cause a problem.

Rick appeared before them holding a shotgun and his handgun, ordering Glenn to go and get Hershel. Jamie quickly took off toward the car and dove into the passenger seat to grab the bullets that she had put in the glove compartment. She took quickly loaded the gun back to its full capacity before she leapt from the vehicle and looked to wherever Rick had gone to.

"Jamie," Rick called, gaining her attention. She jogged over to where he was while she was loading her gun, stopping at his side. The kid that had fallen off the roof was sitting on the dumpster in that alley with a metal top of the fence pushed through his leg. Her stomach turned at the sight of it and she drew her eyes away from him and to Rick instead. "You still got Daryl's knife on you?"

She knelt down and pulled the blade and sheath from her boot, tossing it to Rick. "Why?"

"We're going to cut him loose," he explained shortly. "Keep watch with Glenn." She didn't need to be told twice and turned away from the sight of the kid, lifting her gun and taking aim at the walkers that were making their way over to them. She made sure to take out the closest ones first so that there wasn't a chance of anything surprising her.

"Rick! Pass me your shotgun!" she yelled, gaining his attention. She slung her sniper of her shoulder by the strap and caught the shotgun and began to fire off at the walkers that were rushing toward them, drawn forward from the sound. She didn't pause to see who she was shooting, just taking aim at a face and firing off. Men, women and children fell to the ground before they got within yards. She may not do well at running, but her aim was just fine.

"There's no time!" Hershel was yelling, trying to work with Rick's pocket knife and Jamie's hunting knife to cut the kids leg off. Jamie switched back to her sniper when she ran out of shells and was forced to try and fire off without using her scope.

"Rick! I'm almost out of bullets," she called back, looking away from the walkers for less than a second before she lifted her gun up again and fired off at a well-dressed woman. Glenn was shooting next to her, trying to keep up with the numerous amounts of dead that was rushing at them for their blood and flesh.

The kid behind then began screaming bloody murder, drawing Jamie to look back once again. She nearly gagged at the sight of his leg gushing blood after Rick had ripped it off the fence. "Jamie, start the car," he yelled, throwing her the keys that Hershel had been holding. She caught them without problem and rushed over to the van and threw open the driver's door, taking another shot on the way as Glenn watched her back from where he was still with the others.

Throwing the truck into drive, she slammed down on the gas and shot forward in the red van, spinning around and heading straight for the oncoming walkers. The vehicle jumped from the ground as it drove over the dead, blood splattering all along the hood, windows and doors. Turning again, she headed straight for the fence and pulled up so that they could get him into the back. Rick and Hershel clambered into the back with the kid while Glenn jumped into the passenger side.

"Go!" Rick yelled from the back. She didn't need to be told twice as she floored it, the truck lurching forward and darting along the road, nailing more of the walkers that were in the way. Glenn was gasping for air beside her as he held onto the door and dash for all he was worth.

"Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?" he demanded, looking into the side mirror to see the flattened bodies that had been left in their wake. Jamie smirked to herself as she glanced in the rear view mirror, glancing passed Hershel and Rick to see the destruction that she had left behind.

"You know Daryl as long as I have you learn a few things," she answered back in a breathless voice.


	33. Humanism

Jamie leaned against the driver's door as Rick and Hershel worked on the kid in the back, pulling a blindfold over his eyes so that he couldn't see where they were going. She wrapped her arms around herself to try and fight off the chill that was descending over Georgia as the seasons grew colder. She leaned heavily against the door and looked down at the ground, ignoring the fact that they were off in the middle of nowhere.

Rick stepped over to her and lowered his voice, moving in so that he was whispering. "We'll drive in the opposite direction for now so that we can't be followed; find a place to bunk down for the night. It's too dangerous to head straight back to the farm."

"Alright, should I look for a house?"

"No, just somewhere that we can park out of sight. We're sleeping in the van," he answered back and moved over to the passenger side while Jamie pulled open the driver's door and hefted herself back in. Their newest addition was gasping in the back, clearly left in pain from having his leg nearly ripped to shreds when Rick pulled it off the fencing. Jamie felt sorry for the kid, but at the same time was so angered with him for associating himself with men like Dave and Tony.

"Everyone ready to head out?" she asked finally, looking at Glenn and Hershel in the back before she shifted into drive and pulled away from the side of the road, heading into the back roads that would take them around the town in a circle so that they didn't have to drive back through the same way and then could continue in the loop come morning.

"Is your leg okay, Jay?" Rick asked after a couple of minutes.

"Never felt better; I think it's the adrenaline," she answered back honestly. "Hey kid! What's your name?" she called back to the boy, looking briefly in her rear view mirror to try and get a look at him but it was dark and all she could make out was pale skin.

"Randal," he answered weakly.

"Look, Randal," Rick started, turning in his seat slightly so he could be heard more clearly. "I know it may seem like a lie, but we're not going to hurt you, alright? We'll get your leg fixed up as best we can, after that…well, we'll figure things out."

"Just…just don't kill me," he gasped out, wiggling against the binds on his wrists. The red material covering his eyes stopped him from seeing everyone around him and Jamie knew that it was disturbing. He would never know if they were pointing a gun to his head or if he truly was safe. To lose a sense of sight and movement while injured was a frightening thing. Especially since the outbreak.

"You're not going to die tonight," Jamie assured quietly. Once she was sure they were far enough away from the town she pulled a bit into a field and turned the van off, looking over to Rick to make sure that he was okay with where they were. "This is as far as we go tonight. We'll start moving again come dawn. Anyone needs to pee, you're not allowed to leave alone."

"Seriously, buddy system?" Glenn asked from beside Hershel, looking appalled.

"After the number of walkers seen in the town, do you really want to take the chance out there alone?" Rick asked as he turned to look over his shoulder. Glenn swallowed thickly before he shook his head and leaned back in his seat. "Get the sleep you can and stay quiet," Rick ordered, getting comfortable in his seat and beginning to reload his revolver. Jamie just leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes, knowing that no sleep would come.

"Can you take the blindfold off, just for the night? Please, it's not like I can see anything," Randal begged from the backseat, causing Jamie to sigh and lift her head to look at Rick. It wouldn't really hurt to let the guy sleep without a blindfold—whatever sleep he would get. Before he could make a choice she had turned around in her seat, leaning between the two front seats and reached back to gently untie the blindfold from over Randal's eyes.

"Be good, or I'll shoot your good leg, got it?" she asked softly, lowering the blindfold. He opened his eyes and blinked, finally able to see, and looked shocked when he saw her clearly for the first time.

"Holy shit, you're hot," he stuttered out, his eyes wide. Jamie scowled and her hand snapped forward, her fist connecting with his nose. There was barely any force behind the punch, not even enough to give him a nose bleed, but it got the message across.

"Jay," Rick hissed out in warning, pulling on the leg of her pants to get her to sit back down in her own seat.

"I barely tapped him, don't worry."

For several hours they sat in the cramped space of the van, listening to Randal groan in pain the odd time before he passed out. Jamie leaned her head against the glass and tried to forget the day, imagining herself back at camp in the tent that she shared with Daryl. It was roughly an hour after they had parked themselves in the field that it started to rain lightly, waking Jamie from the semi-sleep she had begun to fall into. It was pitch black outside and inside the van, so she decided to just lean her head back against the glass and try to fall asleep again.

_She was being carried, that much she could tell. Someone was holding under her arms while someone else had her legs. It was a sad way of carrying a person and was slightly embarrassing for all parties involved; but Jamie wasn't aware enough to entirely care. She tried to speak and ask who was touching her and what they were doing, but all that came out were groans._

" _Holy shit, is she alive?" a female voice gasped near her feet, nearly dropping her legs._

" _You didn't check?" another snapped above her head. "For fuck's sake, what if one of the guys had shot her? They'd have killed an innocent woman; you stupid bitch." Jamie coughed lightly as she choked out a laugh, wanting to know this woman better. She already liked her. "Hey, lady, can you open your eyes."_

_Jamie tried, and was surprised to find that it was actually very hard. It felt like someone had put glue underneath her eyelids and let it dry, fusing the skin to her eyeball. She was finally able to open her eyes, only just a crack, and was met with a fogged figure of someone leaning over her head. It was fairly light outside so she was left wondering just how long she had been out._

" _Ah, there you are. We've got to get you off the streets, there's dead people all over the place," the second woman explained. Jamie didn't even have the strength to nod her head before she fell unconscious again, the two women still carrying her along. Her head was starting to throb and her entire body felt like it had been hit by a semi._

Jamie stirred only when she felt the faint movement of the truck, drawing her attention to the knowledge that someone had gotten out. Her mind jolted awake at the realization and she quickly bolted up into a sitting position again, looking first to Rick's seat and realizing immediately that he wasn't there. A quick look back confirmed that Randal was still passed out in the seat behind hers, Glenn and Hershel dozing beside him.

Looking out the front windshield, she spotted Rick walking through the fields toward where a lone walker was stumbling toward him, hands reaching. He easily used the knife that she had never gotten back from him to stab it through the eye, killing it and letting it drop. He didn't move away, though, and instead let his eyes rest on the dead, still figure that had once been human. Sighing softly, she popped open the driver's door and slipped out of her own seat, closing the door as quietly as she could behind herself.

Her leg pulsed in pain as she walked, but she refused to show it and began to walk calmly to where Rick hadn't moved. He glanced over his shoulder to her once before returning his attention to the walker that he had dropped. No words were exchanged as Jamie moved to stand beside him, looking down at the body. It wasn't as decayed and rotten as the others they saw, proving that this one had been turned fairly recently. A bite on the exposed forearm was what had killed the teenage boy, the blood from it staining his otherwise clean clothes.

"He must have been hiding out around here somewhere. I wonder if he was alone," Rick said as he looked up toward the tree line instead. "Like Jim," he added on at the end. Jamie licked her lips as she tried to think of something to say, but nothing that could held was coming to mind.

"There's no way I can help you, Rick. I can't say 'I'm sorry for your loss' like in the past if someone died. You didn't even know him," she started softly. "I…don't know what to say anymore; it's not like in the past when you hear someone young and innocent died in the hospital. There's not going to be a funeral or a memorial, he's just going to sit here and disappear over time."

_Dead is still death._

"I know that things have changed," Rick finally answered back. "I'm not under the illusion that things will go back to normal someday, like this never happened. Sometimes it's just comforting to realize that I can still feel guilt and I can still grieve over a death." His blue eyes turned to look at Jamie, seeing that she was watching him carefully with concern in her golden hazel eyes. "I'll be fine."

"I know it," she agreed right away. "It's good to remember what it feels like to be human, Rick. No one's going to condemn you for it, I'm sure that we all have our own ways of remembering what it's like to be who we  _used_  to be. If we forget who we are and who we are supposed to be then everything falls apart, we're not survivors anymore."

"We kill people every day to survive," he whispered remorsefully, looking down at the body again.

Jamie smiling sadly as she shook her head, placing a hand on Rick's arm and beginning to turn away from the dead teenager, because she didn't want to look at him. "They're already dead, Rick. They die and come back, but they aren't  _them_  anymore. I don't want to use the words 'freeing them' but we're not exactly taking anything from them. I try to think of it that we're preserving the people they used to be by preventing their bodies to be doing such things against their will."

Rick didn't say anything more, but he was thinking over her words silently. "It's hard to think about how just a short while ago I was waking up in a hospital, meeting Morgan and Duane and  _you_ ," he finally said, changing the subject and turning his attention away from the body. "Everything fell into place so quickly it's almost like things were destined to go bad for us. I found my family, you found Daryl and then everyone was dying and the CDC, now Sophia. Things just can't stay good."

"I wouldn't quite say that," she denied quickly. "In the past, I might have said that, but now I just say it is life. Things are going to go bad, people are going to die and loved ones will be lost. We're just going to have to move on and survive." Turning her eyes toward the horizon, the sun was beginning raise higher and was nearly visible over the trees. "We should be getting back; we've been gone  _a lot_  longer than expected. They need Hershel and we need to do something about Randal."

The group stood at the back of the van, ready to head out to the town in search of their lost ranks. Daryl stood with them, his crossbow and new arrows strapped onto his back. Andrea, Shane and T-Dog completed the group. Each had their own respective weapons, knowing that there could be anything in that town that they could be walking in to.

"You guys ready?" Andrea asked as she looked over them, but T-Dog was distracted by something else. She turned to look over her shoulder, wondering what had brought about the distraction, and caught sight of the read van that was driving up the road to the farmhouse. But there was only one van, not a van and a car like they had been expecting. Only Hershel's vehicle was returning up the long driveway.

"Why's there only one?" Daryl demanded, beginning to walk toward where the vehicle was bound to stop.

"They're all in one," Shane grumbled out as he followed after more slowly.

The others were soon standing on the porch at the sound of the van coming up the drive, watching as it pulled to a stop before them. Daryl's heart was racing as he tried to look through the windows, but the sun was reflecting off the glass and he couldn't see much of anything aside from the fact that there were several people inside; he couldn't tell who. The condition of the van left them all worried; blood was smeared and splattered all over the exterior, the largest amount around the wheels.

The engine cut off and the driver's door popped open. Jamie stepped out from inside, drawing Lori to a stop from where she had been rushing forward. Her eyes widened, as did everyone else's, at the sight of her. Her blonde hair was pulled back onto a tight pony-tail, revealing the blood splatter that showered the left side of her face and neck, more of the red liquid on her once light grey shirt. The way that she held herself had changed, or reversed, back to the way it had been in the beginning. Her hazel eyes looked black from the distance they were at, shadows beneath them telling that she had not slept well the night before.

She wasn't limping.

Rick pushed himself out the passenger side and Glenn and Hershel stepped down from the back of the truck. Hershel had blood smeared on his shirt and all of them looked like they had been awake all night. Glenn was carrying two shotguns in his hands, Rick's gun was freshly loaded with bullets in its holster and blood was smeared along the handle of Jamie's sniper with a new handgun tucked into the back of her pants.

"Oh my god," Andrea muttered at last, looking over each of them.

"Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery," Hershel instructed as he made his way toward the front door. Daryl marched up to where Jamie was standing at the front of the van, Hershel's command spurring everyone into movement. He didn't seem to mind the blood that was covering her as he wrapped her in his arms, pressing his lips against hers quickly.

"You hurt?" he demanded, pulling back and looking down at her.

"No, I'm fine. Blood's not mine," she answered back, smiling to him. "Sorry that I was gone so long, we ran into a bit of a road block." He looked pissed and serious all at once, but the relief that swam in his eyes had her arms wrapping around his torso and pulling him in closer to her, pressing another kiss against his lips before resting her clean cheek against his shoulder. Her heart swelled and eased at the feeling of him, dearly missed.

"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog called out, breaking through all of the conversations. Jamie looked back to where he was pointing to the blindfolded, pale man in the back of the van. She sighed softly and looked away from him again, remembering what had happened that morning.

"Everybody, meet Randal," she called around, drawing eyes to where the teenager was sitting. Randal was moved inside so that Hershel could work on his leg, the guys being as careful as they dared to be with the teenager. Jamie was given new bandages for her leg and ordered to go and take a shower in the upstairs bathroom by Hershel, allowing her to wash Dave's blood off of herself.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror as she looked over her flushed cheeks with blood splattered on it, the shower turned on and heating up, Jamie finally let the night before sink in and had to repress the urge to throw up. The sight of Randal's injured leg, the walkers that had flooded the town and the death of the other men all flooded her mind and she had to duck over the sink as she heaved on an empty stomach.

"Jamie," Daryl called through the bathroom door calmly, rapping a knuckle on the wood. He didn't wait for a reply and stepped inside, closing it behind him and deciding to lock it this time. Jamie's forehead was resting against the tap as she breathed in and our evenly, her hands shaking where they were clasping either side of the sink.

Stepping up behind her, the blonde woman didn't move as his hands slipped under her bloody shirt and began to rise it up to reveal her back to him. She released the sink and allowed him to pull her shirt over her head, leaving her top nearly completely bare. Marvelling her tattoo, he was beyond relieved to see that her tattoo was fully visible again with the bruise nothing more than a yellow shadow. He stepped right up to her back and wrapped his arms around her to looking at her face in the mirror over her shoulder.

"Your hair is getting darker," she whispered softly as she lifted a still shaking hand to his hair. It was true, as well, that his hair had begun to lose some of the blonde look as the colder months approached and the weather cooled. Daryl turned into her palm and pressed his lips to it, the short hairs of his goatee prickly against her skin. She smiled and leaned back against his chest, letting out a sigh. "I missed you," she admitted.

"I was worried about you," he returned, wrapping his arms around her stomach and pulling her back against him. "You need to wash this blood off," he whispered into her ear and began to pull the hem of her sweat pants lower on her hips to reveal her underwear, the subtle hint that she needed to get into the shower. She nodded her head in understanding and turned around to press a kiss against his lips before she stepped to the side, out of his arms, and pulled her boots, socks and pants off.

"Lori hunted me down yesterday," Daryl announced a moment later, thinking it best that he let her know that he'd confronted her before she found out some other way. She paused and looked up to him in surprise before letting out a huff of a laugh.

"I'm sure that was a  _wonderful_  conversation," she drawled out as she stood up and pulled her sports bra off, chucking it into the pile. "What happened to her anyway?" she asked curiosity, looking over her shoulder as she was checking the temperature of the water.

"When she came looking for me she wanted me to go and get Rick and Hershel for her, I told her I'm not going to be her fuckin' errand boy anymore. Stupid bitch went off on her own and crashed a car," he scoffed, getting an incredulous look from Jamie. She stopped what she was doing and turned to face him, lifting a hand to stop him from continuing.

"Let me get this straight," she began, "She got into a car accident…on an empty road?"

"Swerved not to hit a walker," he explained. Jamie snorted in disbelief before she disappeared into the shower, leaving Daryl to lean against the sink as he watched her form move around behind the curtain. She poked her head around the corner after a moment and smiled to him, her hair wet and the blood gone from her face. "There ye are, Angel," he smirked and stepped forward to draw her into a long kiss, the water on her lips slickening them.

"Care to join me?" she offered softly, her hand reaching out and taking hold of his leather vest to draw him closer to the entrance of the shower. He looked ready to refuse and that was when she remembered that he was supposed to be meeting with the others to decide what it was that would happen with Randal and also explain to him what had happened exactly while inside the bar. "You can't," she said before he could, looking downcast.

"I'll make it up to ya," he whispered against her lips before pulling back and offering her a smile that was reserved only for her. "I'll see if I can get you a change of clean clothes; we're going to need to find you some new things."

Nodding in agreement, Jamie pulled him forward for one more lingering kiss. The familiarity that he offered calmed her down and did better to wash away all that had happened throughout the day and night before than her shower. "We'll go down to the highway soon," she offered before closing the curtain and letting him leave to return to the others.


	34. Family Substitution

After wrapping her knee in a clean bandage, Jamie pulled on the shorts and shirt that Daryl had been able to borrow from Andrea. The shorts felt tiny and Jamie felt awkward wearing them but the shirt was comfortable enough. A thought of leaving her shoes off because of what it looked like to wear her shorts and boots at the same time came and left fairly quickly, giving her no further excuse to linger in the bathroom and she soon fled down the stairs. Meeting Shane at the bottom, however, made her wish that she had decided to stay inside for a short while longer.

He glared at her as he walked past, getting a cold, blank stare in return, before continuing to storm out of the house. She actually wondered if there would be damage to the door or wall when it slammed against the wood, but brushed the thought aside and looked over to Hershel, who appeared angered as he looked to where Shane had disappeared.

"I see sunshine's just as chipper as always," she said sarcastically as she walked down the remainder of the steps. Hershel sighed and turned to walk away, Rick stepping away from the table to meet the elder man half way, beginning where they had left off in their discussion.

"Listen, we're not going to do anything about it today," he began, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Let's just cool off." Jamie leaned against the railing as people began to scatter about and leave, Andrea rushing out first in the direction that Shane had gone. Out of respect Jamie nodded her thanks to the other woman, even though she still felt a sting of hatred toward her, before she turned her attention to where Rick was.

"I take it he survived," she started, getting a nod. "And I also take it that Shane didn't do well with the news?"

"Yea, they think that it's a liability for us because we brought him back here," Rick explained. Jamie frowned, confused. He had been blindfolded at all times aside from when they were in that field and she had even taken the longer route and turned back several times to throw him off if he had been concentrating on which directions they took. Even that wasn't a strong possibility because of the fact that he'd been out cold most of the time.

"That…makes no sense," she finally said, getting a look from Rick that silently conveyed his agreement before he departed with Hershel to finish talking about what could be done about them staying behind and with Randal's condition as well. Jamie moved into the room where they had all been gathering and got there just as Daryl was marching out the side door with an upset looking Carol watching him leave. Her heart lurched as she thought about the connection that they had once had because of Daryl's loyalty to finding Sophia, but now they were being torn apart.

Carol caught sight of Jamie as she walked over, her stride slower because of her leg but she was no longer limping. It was a thing that everyone was wondering over since she had gotten back; what pushed her to bare the pain and just stop herself from limping? What had changed while she was in the town with the guys? When Carol had first seen her enter the camp during the attack she had the same darkness to her hazel eyes and a strong demeanour that had been fading away in her weaker state until that morning.

"Did something happen while I was away?" she asked calmly when she was in front of her. Carol looked down to the ground before nodding her head—she was half temped to say "I was wondering the same thing". Jamie sighed softly and looked out the door to where Daryl was walking off toward the back of the fields. She could faintly see that he had set up a camp back there, far away from everyone else. He was pulling away again. "Come on, tell me about it."

"A little while after you left with Rick and Glenn he started packing up your guys things and taking them out to the back of the property. I didn't want him to leave the group after he had worked so hard to be accepted; I just wanted him to stay with all of us," Carol began explaining as she had Jamie stepped out onto the deck of the house, looking out over the vast property. Jamie didn't say anything in reply and instead nodded along and listened carefully. "He…didn't react well to me coming to check on him and starting blaming me for what happened to Sophia. I'm a mother, though, so I know that some people just need to vent and yell so I let him, I told him to yell at me if he wanted."

Jamie slipped her hands into the pockets of her shorts as her heart began to speed in her chest, wishing that there was more that she could do but knowing that she had to wait to hear everything. Daryl had always been someone that was loud or violent about things, but she knew that he would never take it too far and hit someone. For Carol to show that she was going to be there for him would only scare him away all the more.

"He probably doesn't think that he did, but he actually did relieve himself of some of the things on his shoulders. He said that I'm alone, but I think that in some ways, he is too. I mean, you're there for him, but the rest of the group isn't exactly friendly to him. They tolerate him for your sake because they like you, but Daryl's always been someone that didn't fit in. He's pulling away like he had when he and Merle had first arrived at camp and I'm worried about him."

"Daryl has more heart than he likes to admit," Jamie said softly. Stopping in her strides, she leaned forward with her hips on the railing of the porch and let out a huff of air. "He probably didn't even know Sophia all that well before she disappeared, but it gave him something to do and then before long he actually began to believe that he would find her. His reason is gone and the girl he was so firmly determined to find can never be saved. I'm sorry that you had to take all of his anger."

Carol smiled sadly as she placed a hand on Jamie shoulder and waited until she was looking into her eyes. There was understanding and concern inside the depths of golden brown and it was reassuring to see it. Daryl would need her just as much as Carol would admit that she needed the both of them. Through the time that Jamie had joined the group and Daryl had taken on the challenge of locating Sophia she had grown closer to those two far more than any of the others.

"Go to him," Carol said softly. "He'll open up to you more than anyone else here."

Jamie let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "That's not exactly how things go with Daryl, but I'll work on it. Don't worry about me if I don't come back for a couple of hours," Jamie added on as she began toward the stairs, pulling at the bottom hem of the shorts awkwardly. She did not like wearing the tiny shorts, they were far worse than what she would wear during the summer and Andrea had shorter legs than she did so that made it worse.

The sun hit the slightly paler tone of Jamie's skin as she was walking along the property, heading for Daryl's new camp. The time that she had been forced to stay inside had taken some of the tan from her skin, but she had more of a flush to her cheeks again and she didn't look as tired and worn down as she had before. Her spirit had returned to her and she wasn't planning on letting it slip away again. It was one of the most important things for survival in the new world that they were stuck in.

Just like with Daryl, Jamie's hair was beginning to lose some of the blonde tone and darkened to a more blown colour as the colder months drew closer and the suns heat didn't brighten the colours anymore. There was a chill that was beginning to carry along through the wind, raising bumps on Jamie's exposed legs as she made her way through the open field. She felt exposed and bare, not only because of the clothing but also because she didn't have her gun or knife.

"I gotta say I appreciate the peace and quiet," Jamie called out in a sense of greeting, looking around at the enclosure that he had made. The remains of a building gave a stronger feeling of security, but it wasn't much compared to being close to the house and surrounded by the others. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," she sang as she looked around, soon hearing the tent material shift as Daryl slipped out through the opening.

"You spoke to Carol," he said right away, not even trying to avoid the subject. Jamie nodded her head and stepped up to him, ducking under a rope that he had hung with animal skins hanging from them. The scent of the dead masked the scent of the living and any walkers around would smell the old blood and rotting skin before they caught their scent inside the tent while they slept.

Once she was standing in front of him her eyes moved up to look at his bright, sky blue orbs and she took a moment to just look into them. "The woman has patience, I'll give her that. After what happened last night she's still worried about you." His jaw muscle twitched at the reminder of the night before and Jamie's light expressions suddenly disappeared as her disappointment and slight anger toward his actions became visible. He wasn't surprised; he'd know that she wasn't going to be happy even if she understood his actions.

Without further hesitation her hand connected with his cheek and a loud crack filled the air. The memory of the last time she had slapped him came back, thinking of Jim and the bite that he had received. As his cheek was stinging and his heart hammering in his chest, Jamie stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his torso, providing him with the soothing comfort after the pain. "I think that Carol is just looking for someone to care for; she knows that her daughter is never coming back and is trying to find someone else to take her place in a way. She knows that you aren't close to the group and believes that is the perfect opportunity to try and help you," Jamie explained, running her fingers through the hair at his nape and feeling his hands move to her hips.

"I don't need nobody mothering me," he replied gruffly, clearly put off at the slap he had received.

"I know, Daryl," she insisted, "But please just give Carol some time. You lost someone that you were determined to find, but she lost her daughter, her  _blood_. She's going to need someone to lean on for just a little while," she tried to reason, pulling back to look into his eyes again. "When Sophia was gone and I was still stuck in the camp after giving blood she was always there, acting as a nurse to me. She was trying to fill the space that Sophia had once taken up; she needed someone to take care of and keep her occupied."

"I deserved the slap, huh?" Daryl asked, resigned. Jamie glared at him for a moment as her eyes moved briefly to look at the reddened skin that had been left behind from the connection of her hand.

"Damn right you did," she finally said pointedly, meeting his eyes and seeing that there was clarity within them. "But, I don't feel like being pissed off today so I'm just going to settle for that and instead move to the topic of ' _why here'_."

"No fuckin' privacy back at camp," Daryl growled out, wrapping her in his arms. Jamie inhaled deeply as his scent surrounded her, the only thing that she could think to make the moment perfect. His arms, strong and tanned, encircling her; his smell, woodsy and masculine, all she could breathe; and his voice, whispered hushed words into her ear. She smiled and held onto him tightly, moving to press a kiss against his stinging cheek.

"I agree," she breathed back. "No need to worry about people hearing," she continued, moving to kiss his lips instead. Daryl groaned deeply, making Jamie smile. She sucked in a shocked breath when he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her clear off her feet, but soon began to laugh softly as he began to walk back toward where the tent was located. He had made things up the exact way they had been back at camp, except for that the bed was a bit further away from the door than it had been before so that they would have more reaction time if a walker was able to get onto the property.

Zipping the tent closed behind them, Daryl soon deposited the woman onto the bed, beginning to run his hands along her exposed legs. He found himself rather enjoying the feel of her without the pants, as it had been in the past. The tan on her legs didn't get there from hiding the skin away all the time, and Daryl missed the times that she could recline in the back of his truck in only a bikini.

"I like these," he drawled against her throat as he tugged on the shorts she was wearing. "Now I'ma take 'em off." And that he did. The bed was warm beneath Jamie because Daryl had been lying on it so recently, heating it with his own body. The warmth of the mattress lay beneath her as the heat of Daryl lay above her, encasing her. She felt wrapped in pleasant warmth and all past thoughts of the chill of coming autumn fled from her mind.

Her legs were smooth from her recent shower, giving her time to tend to her body. Daryl's hands didn't miss a single patch of skin, tan and pale, as he shifted above her body and drawing hisses from her when the rough material of his shirt brushed sensitive skin. The day before in the forest had been comforting, allowing them both to simply be. It was too much to forget about the little things in the world; they needed to moments to touch and feel, whisper and laugh. Longing looks and suggestive stares were something that had always been included in their intimate relationship, so they couldn't afford to change that.

It had been more than just the group Daryl was drawing away from, and while the others might not care, she was not going to stand for it. Even in the past, when Daryl was forced to deal with the drama that Merle kicked up about them he had never backed down, and she was just waiting for that spirit to return where the rest of the group was concerned.

Jamie let out a long breath of air as Daryl's fingers gently soothed along where her cut was, the touch reaching her even through the bandages that were tightly wrapped around the injury. In the same moment, his lips pressed kisses to nearly every other place of skin that they would reach above her shoulders, drawing sighs, giggles and hitches of air from her in response.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" she asked breathlessly as Daryl's fingers glided between her ribs leisurely.

"I am," he answered in a husky growl.

Hours later the sun was beginning to set and Jamie was sound asleep, her back to Daryl as she dreamt. His fingers traced her tattoo, the black lines all visible once more. The bruise that she had had before scared him when he saw it, and he was still fearful that one day he might lose her. At the time she didn't have him there to protect her and now that he did have her back he was going to live every day with her as he would his last. Too many times he had nearly lost her. The time to grow up had come and gone, passing Daryl by, but he was catching up quick. Seeing what had happened to Sophia spooked him in a way that no one would ever really understand, not even Jamie.

He was petrified that something like that might happen with her.

How often that he told her that angels couldn't die didn't matter, because there was the torturously, terrifying,  _true_  reality that she  _could_  die.

Moving closer to her, Daryl wrapped an arm around her waist and buried his face in her hair as he pressed his body flush against her own. Her scent surrounded him, calming his hectic and dark thoughts, and allowed him to begin to slip into a light sleep, never truly falling into a deep enough sleep so that he didn't hear anything moving outside the tent.

_Daryl felt awkward as he turned his back on Jamie, hearing the sound her of pulling off the tape that held the bandages to her back. His cheeks burned as he thought about how her shirt would have had to be removed in order for her to do that. She hissed in pain now and again as her skin was pulled from the stickiness, ripping it off at times just to make it go faster._

" _How does it look?" she asked after a moment of silence. Daryl twitched at the thought of looking at her before he finally glanced over his shoulder briefly. He had to do a double take, however, when he caught sight of the tattoo that she had been telling him about. The bold black stood out against her skin, slightly red because of how recent it was that the needle had met her skin. He turned around completely to get a better look at the wings, barely more than outlines of feathers, and found himself wondering how much pain she must have been in. "Daryl?" she asked hesitantly, glancing at him over her shoulder as she held her shirt to her front._

" _They're beautiful," he admitted quietly, his voice hoarse. He quickly turned away and cleared his throat, his cheeks burning once again._

" _Dad's gonna be mad as hell," she whispered, pulling her shirt back on slowly, trying not to aggravate the tender skin. "Mom would have been, too," she added on in a meek voice, falling to sit on the end of Daryl single bed. Her long blonde hair fell into her face, hiding it from his eyes._

" _You did this for your mama," Daryl said carefully, moving over to sit on the corner of the bed, keeping space between them as he sat beside her. "I think he'll understand that. Even if he's pissed 'bout it." Jamie nodded her head carefully before she let out a great sigh and rose to her feet, glancing at him over her shoulder and offering a sad smile._

" _Best be getting home before he sends out a search party," she declared. "Thanks for letting me crash here with you, I couldn't go home last night." Daryl nodded his head awkwardly, looking down at the floor and his booted feet. He was surprised when she leant over and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing a kiss against his hair. He wasn't sure what to do, so he remained sitting completely still, allowing her to hold into him much as he had the night before. When she pulled back she refused to look at him and Daryl knew that she was crying._

_She had told him how much she hatred crying and she had been doing so much of it the past couple of days since he mother's death that she dared to become angry with herself. Slipping out his window, she was gone before he had a chance to say goodbye._


	35. Take Your Freedom

There had once been a large, hundreds of years old tree where Daryl had chosen to set up their own little camp, now fallen on its side with roots torn from the ground and creating a borrow. Jamie sat on the enormous trunk, still hard from years of living, and twisted a stick in her hands as she looked up to where the run was beginning to rise. The clouds that dusted the sky were a soft orange colour as the sun peaked over the horizon, hidden from her eyes by acres upon acres of trees. She smiled none the less, pulling Daryl's shirt more tightly around her when the morning chill nipped at her skin.

"We really need to get ya some clothes," Daryl said loudly, drawing Jamie's eyes down to where he was standing on the ground in front of her, wearing nothing but his cargo pants and boots. She smiled in greeting, snuggling into his shirt and causing him to snort in amusement. "Thief."

"You're right, I'm guilty," she declared. Sliding herself off the tree, she was relieved that it was smooth because the bark had been stripped off and her legs weren't cut up. Putting her wrists together, she held them out to Daryl and hung her head in mock shame. Daryl's large hands engulfed the joints before he tugged, pulling her up against his bare chest. His lips met hers briefly before he wrapped his arms around her, slipping under the shirt so that his morning chilled skin brushed against her own and caused her body to erupt with bumps and her bones to shiver.

"I'ma have to find a punishment for you, Angel," he drawled into her ear, the husk of his voice making her tremble. She smiled, though, and wrapped her arms around him in turn, separating her wrists from where they had been against his chest and hooked her fingers into the back of his cargo's belt loops.

"Please, I beg you, have mercy," she whispered against his lips, getting a deep laugh as her answer. His eyes caught hers before she had a chance to say anything more, his arms around her pulling her closer. Her lips lifted into a smile against the kiss, her own fingers caressing his skin, touching scars, tattoos and callouses. She gasped in surprise when his hands lifted the shirt from her body, breaking their contact and pushing her arms back behind her, locking them in the sleeves of his shirt and leaving her bound.

"You know I ain't one for mercy," Daryl growled against her throat, tugging on her arms to prove a point. Jamie was very relieved in that moment that they could not be seen, even with binoculars, from the camp because of the large, fallen tree. Wearing nothing but her bra, she glared half-heartedly at him as she tried to wriggle her arms free, getting a smirk from the man at her attempts.

"Dude, not cool," she lied

Daryl stared at her in challenge for a moment before his hands released the shirt, still leaving it twisted up around her wrists, and knelt before her and had her thrown over his shoulder before she could manage a squeak of surprise. He was pleased with the perfect view he got of the backs of her strong thighs, his arm draped over them to stop her from tumbling over his shoulder, and couldn't stop from staring as he carried her back toward their 'camp'.

"Ass," she finally declared as she gave up and leaned her elbow against his back, her chin in her palm with her arms still tangled messily in the shirt.

"An' a very nice one," Daryl agreed smartly, reaching up to smack the upturned rear that was on display on his shoulder, getting a small shriek from her in reply as she commenced with beating on his back, only getting a laugh for her efforts. She was soon deposited back onto the bed she had snuck away from a short while before, laughing despite herself as her golden blonde hair fell into her eyes and blocked her sight like a curtain. Tossing his shirt aside, she used her freed hands to clear her vision, smiling up at Daryl as he kneeled over her.

"I bet if you had your way I'd never get new pants," she mocked, a sneer as her answer, before Daryl dove down and caught her lips, silencing anything further that she might have said. A smile stayed firm on Jamie's lips as she returned the gesture, caressing Daryl's lips with her own. They were beginning to chap and Jamie knew that winter was going to be horrendous. "Daryl," she complained half-heartedly. "I need pants."

"I disagree."

"Daryl!"

The taller of the two laughed as he nipped her neck sharply, drawing a gasp from Jamie as she tried to twist her way out from under the male. They had things to do and it would be a hell of a lot easier to finish them if they actually left the tent. However, at the same time she really didn't want to do anything but lay with Daryl and sleep away the day pretending that everything was alright.

"Daryl," she whispered slyly, her fingers beginning to dance along the bared skin of his sides, making him tremble against her body and his lips to still on her neck. "Wouldn't you like to get away from everyone for the day? Just take the bike out to the highway and  _ride_?" she suggested in a slightly deeper voice, her fingers sliding down to trace the V of his hips as she rolled hers up against his thigh, feeling the twitch of his muscles from her touch.

"Clever bitch," he snapped, his voice husky and his breath hot against the cooled skin of her throat.

"Sly bastard," she countered, rolling her hips again. Daryl retaliated quickly, grasping her arms and pulling her up in a fluid movement, drawing a gasp of surprise from her lips when she suddenly found herself straddling his lap, looking in his darkened blue eyes. He sneered at her in victory as his hands slid down her back exaggeratedly slowly, drawing tremors and shivers from the woman above him, until he reached her ass and pulled her harshly forward and forcing her hips against his. They both groaned, never once breaking eye contact, as they both began to breathe more heavily.

"Now, 'bout that ride…"

Jamie was struggling to pull her blonde hair back into a pony-tail when she stepped into camp that morning, greeting the others with a muffled hello as she held her hair tie between her teeth. Daryl was already preparing his bike for their trip off the farm, leaving it to Jamie to tell the others of their departure.

"Need a hand with that, hun?" Carol asked when she saw that Jamie was struggling to hold her mass of golden hair in one hand and tie it with the other. Jamie paused a moment before releasing her hair, allowing the long, heavy locks to fall back down onto her neck, before she held the tie out to Carol with a faint pout on her lips.

"Thanks," she said softly, offering the older woman a smile as Carol stepped behind her and gathered all of the silky strands up into her hands. Jamie was slightly embarrassed at the condition of her hair most of the time because of the lack of showers they had. Having one the day before allowed her hair a clean, soft feel—the cooler weather was also a bonus because of less sweat soaking into the strands and making her hair seem far greasier than it was.

Carol used both hands to collect the mass amount of curls up, pulling it high to the same level on Jamie's skull that it usually was, and began raking her fingers through it to make sure that the hair was all flat on her skull before pulling the tie off of her wrist. Jamie stood still as Carol was tugging gently on her hair, just as a mother would, and found herself remembering when she was a child. She had always sat at the kitchen table in the morning, munching on her cereal, as her own mom pulled her hair back into braids, pony-tails, pig-tails, or was simply brushing it out.

" _I remember when I was your age,"_  she used to say to her,  _"My mother would sit me down, too, and brush my hair through before I went to school."_

Jamie caught Lori's eye as she was hanging a couple of wet shirts, a glare in her hazel eyes that had Lori ducking her head behind one of Glenn's t-shirts and acting as though she hadn't seen her. Sighing softly, she could feel as Carol finished tying off her hair and pulled on the strands to make sure that it was tight.

"All done," she said after a moment, her voice wistful. Jamie smiled over her shoulder, getting one in return even as the pain of remembering her daughter clouded Carol's eyes. "Where are you going out today?"

"Daryl and I are heading up to the highway to try and find some clothes and other things. I'm going to be walking around here naked at the rate my clothes are disappearing," Jamie teased as she began to walk over to the others, Carol following behind. "I just wanted to come let everyone know while Daryl gets the bike set up. Is there anything we'll be missing around here?"

"No, just some preparations for the colder weather. The guys are taking turns watching Randal," Carol explaining, looking over to where Rick was approaching from the house while Glenn was walking inside, taking his place as watchdog over the injured teenager. Hershel had forbidden for any of the women to go near Randal's room, especially alone. He wasn't taking any chances with his daughters in the same house.

"I still have mixed feelings about that kid," Jamie admitted as she stopped walking and looking toward the house with a mixture of pity and worry in her hazel eyes. "He's still so young and yet he's being treated like a felon. I know that he's got to be considered a threat after what happened in town, but still," she mumbled, trailing off and letting the sentence hang between them.

"His group tried to kill you," Carol said softly, placing a hand on Jamie's arm as though the touch would make her remember and side with Carol's belief.

"Believe me, I remember. But still, why should one be punished for the decisions of others? I'm not saying I'm gunna be showing him pity, the kid's an ass—pardon my language—but I don't think we should judge too quickly or too harshly."

The sound of Daryl's bike drew the women's attention over to where he was pulling it up along the path that led to the long driveway of the Greene farm. He was looking over to Jamie as he sat on the bike, waiting. She waved to him in acknowledgement before turning to where Carol still stood, her own eyes directed to the waiting male. When she felt Jamie staring at her, she finally looked away and offered a faint smile.

"He'll come around," Jamie assured quietly, leaning slightly toward to keep the words between them. "Could you let the others know where we're headin'? I don't want to keep him waiting."

"Yes, go on," she assured, waving the blonde off. Jamie nodded her head in thanks and smiled brilliantly before she moved away from where she had been standing. She passed Rick on the way, patting him on the back as she said her good mornings, before continuing a steady jog over to Daryl. No one saw that narrowing of Lori's eyes when she saw the other woman clap her husband on the back as she tossed a friendly 'morning' over her shoulder. She watched the blonde with venom in her gaze as Jamie swung her leg over the bike behind Daryl, wrapping him in her arms as they jolted forward and started down the drive.

"Where are they going?" T-Dog asked first, everyone that remained in the camp pausing to watch the two depart. "Ain't Daryl far enough away from us without  _leaving_  the farm?"

"They're going to get some clothes and supplies from the highway," Carol explained, moving up to join the group. "Jamie's running out of clothes and with the cold weather she'll need more than just those shorts."

"So they just decided to leave?" Lori asked, her voice showing the irritation that was well hidden on her face.

"It's not like there's a lot going on around here," Rick answered back. "Aside from watching Randal and helping with chores, there's not a whole lot we need their help with. Besides, I think that Jamie's just looking for a way to give Daryl some space, he's going through a lot right now." Carol nodded in agreement as she accepted the basket of clothes that Rick handed to her, still to be washed. "They've done their share of near-death experiences for the group; I'd say they could use a day to themselves."

"This place could use a little less tension," Andrea threw in from where she was clearing up their breakfast supplies, her gun slung over her shoulder already. "Daryl's been a tight as a coiled spring; let him snap on walker and not us."

"What about Jamie?" T-Dog asked, "what if he snaps on her?"

"Are you kidding?" Andrea asked disbelievingly. "Have you seen the way that man looks at her? It's like he's a puppy desperate to make his master happy, there's not a chance in hell he'd go off on her. I'm sure they'll find a very different form of stress relief than fighting," she finished, getting a chuckle from T-Dog when she compared the badass hick to an obedient puppy.

"You mean sex?"

All eyes turned down to where Carl was standing, looking as though there was nothing amiss with what he had said. Andre cringed as she looked over to where Lori looked appalled and Rick was trying to smother a grin of amusement that he knew would upset his wife. He had already had 'the talk' with Carl and there wasn't much that the boy missed, so he wasn't surprised that Andrea's words hadn't gone over his head as it would most kids.

"Carl!" Lori scolded.

"Oops," the blonde to blame simply said before departing to deposit the dirty dishes.

Jamie wasn't used to the chill of riding on Daryl's motorcycle in the cooler weather without her leather jacket, which had been lost along the way to finding her fiancé—she wasn't complaining, though, it had stopped her from getting bitten. She held herself close to him, stealing his warmth, and hoped that she was able to find some fall clothes as well. Pants were simple to find, especially jeans, but she wasn't sure about people packing up jackets when it was so hot out in the beginning of the outbreak.

Eyes closed, Jamie let the wind rush by as she remembered the feeling of Carol's fingers sifting through her hair, so much like her mother. Her hands fisted in Daryl's shirt at the thought and she pressed her cheek against the leather of his vest, feeling the material that made up the wings tickle her chin. She missed her mother, she missed her father, she would even go so far as to say that she missed sitting behind a design desk for hours on end.

She missed her old life.

However, she knew that all of those things were gone and there was no way for her to get them back. Having Daryl with her made everything easier, even if it was in a selfish way; her happiness was something that she couldn't share with the others. If she could pass on her joy to everyone else she would have done it a long time ago, but there was no way of taking her love for Daryl and using it to bring a light back into the lives of her new friends.

Only opening her eyes when she felt the bike beginning to slow, Jamie as surprised at the sight of cars slowing rolling passed her vision. They were already on the highway.

Lifting her head form Daryl's back, she looked up over his shoulder and caught sight of several familiar vehicles, as well as all that they had left for Sophia had there been the chance of her being alive and returning to where they had been forced to stop. Her heart lurched in her chest and she could feel the tension in Daryl's body, the muscles bunching up beneath her hands like taut wire.

Now that they had slowed in order to manoeuvre around the abandoned cars and trucks, Jamie could lift her hand and run it gently through Daryl's darkening hair. It was soft against her skin and she couldn't stop herself from smiling at the feel of it. Daryl soon came to a complete stop and turned off the bike, leaving them in swallowing silence. Jamie wanted to remain holding onto him, but at the same time her legs were beginning to cramp and she couldn't stop the need to stand. Unwinding herself from around him, she winced as her bunched muscles were forced to stretch out and jolts were sent up her legs from heel to hip.

"Damn, I forgot how sore my ass got from sittin' on that thing," she grumbled out as she reached back to rub her sore rear, getting a chuckle from Daryl as he remained sitting, marvelling silently at the sight. She glared mockingly at him over her shoulder before taking a couple of steps and looking around carefully. With her knife back at her hip, she felt slightly more reassured, but her gun was still back at camp. Daryl's crossbow lingered, slung over her shoulder, as she waited for him to dismount.

"Not a bad view from here," he drawled out as he pulled himself off the motorcycle. Slipping up behind her, he let his fingers slide along the exposed skin from her tank top as he pulled the crossbow free, feeling her skin prickle with bumps because of his touch.

"Ass," she mumbled again, refusing to look at him.

"An' a very nice one," he growled into her ear for the second time that day, punctuating his words with a sharp pinch to the flesh of her ass before turning sharply and moving over to where the supplies were left behind for Sophia. Whatever was still edible could be taken back now that they knew she wouldn't need them, as heartbreaking as it was. Jamie snapped a glare in his direction, but his back was already turned.

Resting her hand on the hilt of her knife, she began weaving her way through cars in search of the van that she had hidden in when the walkers had first moseyed on through. It wasn't as hard to find as she had thought it would be, and she was glad she had remembered to shut it after going through everything, keeping what was inside as fresh as an abandoned van could.

"I always wanna see you!" Daryl warned when she lifted the back hatch, blocking his view from where he was lingering by the car that had the message to Sophia painted on the front windshield.

"You make protectiveness sound perverted," she called back, hearing his scoff and imagining his face easily. Smiling in amusement, she began picking through the mess of clothes that she had left behind the last time. There were several pairs of jeans she had thrown aside before that she didn't bother going near, but was able to locate a couple more that seemed to have the same size as the ones that Lori and Maggie had to cut off of her. Sadly, they couldn't have been salvaged. Instead, they were burned.

Sifting through the different shirts that she was able to find, she was relieved to find that there were actually a couple of longer sleeved shirts, but still no jacket. Quickly going through the duffle bag that had originally been holding all of the clothes, she then began putting everything she could bring back inside of the black bag, keeping the toiletries and other things inside for future use.

The scrape of gravel along the road began her caused a knee-jerk reaction of her hand snapping down to her knife hilt as she looked sharply over her shoulder. Daryl didn't seem bothered by her reaction, if anything there was relief in his blue eyes. She could protect herself and he was glad that he didn't have to worry after her all the time if she wasn't in his sights.

He didn't say a word as he stepped up to her and curled an arm around her waist, drawing her up against his warm body and pressing a kiss against her forehead. Her stomach tightened and her heart sped up as Jamie wrapped her arms around his torso in return, leaning into Daryl for his warmth and comfort. It must have been hard for him to come back to where Sophia had first run off and Jamie almost felt bad that she had been the one to bring him down there, but she also knew that he was coping.

"Let's just stay out here for the day," Jamie whispered against the leather of Daryl's vest, feeling much too lazy to do anything else. Her hands slid down to slide her fingers into the back pockets of his cargo pants, one of them already occupied with a red bandana that he always carried around with him.

"I couldn't agree more, Angel."


	36. Ode to Summer

Dressed in a warmer, long sleeved shirt and dark jeans, Jamie was much more comfortable as she slipped several bottles of Advil and Tylenol inside the bag she had stuffed her clothes into, hoping that she could remember to give them to Rick when she got back; or to Dale to stash away in his trailer for when someone was hurt. Shane might pop a blood vessel if she even tried to give them to Hershel as penance for the amount of times they've needed his help.

"All ready?" Daryl asked as he stepped from around the car she was kneeling beside, his crossbow slung over his shoulder as his eyes scanned the area. They had spent much of the day moving from vehicle to vehicle, looking through things or just lying on the roof or hood as the sun passed overhead. They didn't want to chance anything and made sure that they were completely prepared to leave before the sun had even passed behind the trees.

"Yea," she answered immediately, straightening up and slinging the bag over her shoulder. "Find anything else?"

"Bunch a dead people…and more half-eaten dead people," Daryl answered back smartly, getting a mock gag from his fiancé that caused him to chuckle deeply. "Come on, Angel, let's get back before they all end up killing one another," Daryl declared, opening his arm to her. Shaking her head at him, she still stepped into his side with a soft sigh.

"Do you really think they'd do that?" she asked quietly, leaning her head on his shoulder as they made their way back through the maze of cars, trucks and bikes.

"This group? Fuck yea." His reply made her heart lurch in her chest as her hand fisted in his shirt at his side. "This group is fuckin' broken, and there's nothing that you or anyone else can say to convince me otherwise. Shane, Rick, Lori…fuck, even Andrea. There's too much personal shit going on that it's tearing everything apart." Jamie nodded her head in understanding; she knew all about that confusing circle of emotion going on. She was sadly in the circle as well, with Lori thinking that something was going on between her and Rick while she had cheated on her own husband.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, more to herself. Daryl pulled her to a stop and turned her to face him completely, his hand moving to the base of her skull and keeping her looking up at him.

"Survive," he answered gruffly. Blinking slowly, Jamie thought back to when she had refused to let anything slow her down. She had once forced herself to move even as her body seemed to be falling apart, and it was all to find Daryl. Now that she had him, was she as selfish as Andrea accused her of being?

"Am I selfish?" she asked suddenly, meeting his confused look. "About having you, am I being selfish? I don't exactly stop to think about the others-"

"Stop," Daryl ordered, taking a fist full of her shirt material and giving the woman one hard shake. Jamie's head snapped back and forth slightly from the movement, but was otherwise left with a simple shocked look at Daryl's reaction. He looked pissed off as his eyes held hers, hands fisted in her shirt and his lips drawn into a thin frown. "Never say that," he growled out, shaking her one more time but slightly less hard. "Never. Never say you're being selfish."

He could feel Jamie's chest rising and falling heavily against his fist in her shirt, her eyes locked on him and revealing her awe at his reaction.

"You have risked your life for the people of this group, and I'll be damned if I let ya go and say it's selfish to be happy," he snapped, hands still tightly clenching the material of her shirt. He sighed a moment later and lifted his hand from her shirt to instead pull her forehead up against his, their skin both chilled, "Sometimes your heart it just too fucking big, Jay."

"So you've told me before," she said, laughing humourlessly.

"It's not always a bad thing, but you've gotta stop letting everybody in-if I find out you've been pitying the little shit that shot at you, I'll shoot you," Daryl said, suddenly switching in what he was saying and causing Jamie to nearly choke on her own breath as she was caught between laughing at his words and scoffing in annoyance at his overprotectiveness.

"When did this become about Randal?"

Daryl pressed her forehead more firmly against his own, drawing her eyes up to his. "He won't get a scrap of sympathy from me, Angel, he could have killed you in that fuckin' town," he growled out, fingers fisting in her hair and tugging on the golden strands. Calmly, she reached up and placed a hand over his to relax his grip, relieving her head from feeling the ache of her hair being pulled so harshly.

"I'm safe now, with you," she assured, knowing that her most frequent near death experience had left him in a state. Unlike the other times that she had been hurt, he hadn't been there to help her, to know that she was alright. Perhaps, in some ways, Daryl was being selfish as well because of the need he had for keeping her with him and him alone, fighting against the wants and needs of the others so that she didn't need to be away from him. If she was at his side, he knew that she was safe and that there was no chance he could lose her.

"No one's safe on this fuckin' highway, let's get back," Daryl declared suddenly, pulling away from their embrace slightly as he looked over her shoulder. Jamie barely even had to glance back before seeing the walker that was stumbling along, ignorant to their presence for the moment. Jamie was silent as she nodded, crouching to pick up her bag and follow after Daryl as lightly as she could.

The walker was still trying to stagger through the cars when the motorcycle roared to life, Daryl wasting no time before he kicked them forward and threw rocks backward as they bolted back toward the farm. Jamie's arms wrapped around his waist, resting her cheek against his shoulder blade, and used him to keep her on the bike as well as to keep her upright from the weight of the bag and his bow on her back. That was the only issue with sitting behind him; she always had to carry the load.

The ride back was chilly but enjoyable, Daryl's familiar woodsy smell all that she could breathe as they glided along the asphalt. Closing her eyes, she let herself bask in his presence as the slowly dying trees passed them by. Things were changing again, and it wasn't yet a point in time that she could be sure whether they were or were not for the better. Freeing one of her hands, Jamie held it out alongside the bike and relished in the feeling of the wind rushing through her fingers, trying to push her hand and arm back at the force of the air.

She could barely see Daryl turn his head to see where her arm and gone, catching sight of her hand reaching out, and soon returned his attention to the road, driving slightly more slowly after a moment. Jamie smiled when she realized he was doing it because he didn't want to risk her falling off with the lesser grip she had on him, her other hand still fisted in his shirt.

"I swear to fuck if you fall off-" Daryl called over the roar of the engine, drawing a laugh from Jamie as she wrapped her arm back around his waist and leaned heavily against him, trying to roll her shoulders to relieve some of the pressure on them. Daryl sped up again after he was sure she wasn't going to fall backward, returning his full attention to the road and concentrating on getting them back to the farm before it got any later.

Before either of them really wanted, they were pulling up by the campsite once more. Jamie could see T-Dog and Carol, but everyone else must have been scattered about because she couldn't see them. Carol smiled and waved when she saw them, getting a smile in return from Jamie and the cold shoulder from Daryl. They two women gave each other sympathetic looks but neither tried to force him to be polite; Daryl was an enigma and he just needed his own time to accept things back as they were.

"Did you find everything you needed?" Carol asked quietly, stretching her hand out to place on Jamie's arm. Relieved of the weight of the crossbow, Jamie shouldered only the duffle bag as she looked about the camp for anyone else.

"Yea, and we picked up the supplies we could find," she answered, keeping the words 'we left for Sophia' out of the sentence. It was meant more to lighten the truth, since she knew that Carol was well aware of what supplies she was speaking of. "Nothing happened while we were away, though, right?" Jamie asked, slightly worried. There was always a nagging feeling, almost a nauseous twist in her stomach, that she had to keep an eye on the others lest she not be there when things turned bad.

"No, it's been quiet all day. Randal's been passing in and out of consciousness, but there's been no other change. Rick and Shane want to wait about a week before they drop him off somewhere, that way he's not completely immobile." Jamie nodded along, looking toward the house. She wouldn't say she felt good about abandoning someone that was hurt, but she disliked the idea of having him moving about freely with them even more.

"Still don't know how I feel about that," she grumbled to herself before she dropped the duffle bag on the ground and crouched down to begin pulling out the supplies she had found. Carol took most of them from her and took them to the RV to be put away neatly, while Jamie stayed where she was and continued to pick out different medicines, foods supplies and small things like battery packs for their flashlights.

"Need a hand with that?" T-Dog asked, crouching beside her. Offering a smile, she held out a handful of sealed batteries, all of different kinds.

"I don't know where those should go, so how about you keep them in the camp until you can find out from someone? They won't be doing that much good staying in my bag." T-Dog nodded and slipped the packs into one of the large pockets located on the leg of his pants. Jamie finished shuffling through the pockets of her bag before she closed them up and pulled the large thing back on her shoulder, looking over to where Daryl was coming out of the house after speaking with the guys and Randal.

Jamie glanced over to the RV, relieved that Carol wasn't coming out, before she smiled in greeting to Daryl and angled her body as an invitation for them to walk back to their camp together. Daryl took her bag from her before she had a chance to decline and started walking, holding out his free arm in his own invitation. Smiling, Jamie immediately stepped into his embrace, wrapped her arm around his waist as his wound the curve of her neck and they began the trek back to their tent.

"This is your favourite time of year," Daryl commented as they were stepping carefully through the field. Jamie glanced at him from the corner of her eye before nodding her head and leaning further into him. It was the truth; she loved autumn. The time of the year when all of the leaves were turning colours, beginning to rain down like a storm of reds, oranges and yellows. She would be the adult that went running through the forest like a child whenever a huge gust of wind blew through the trees and shook the leaves loose, creating a beautiful waterfall of colours.

"Only downside is that now I'm sleeping in a tent, when I used to sleep in an apartment with a fireplace," Jamie teased, squeezing Daryl a little tighter as she thought back to the times that they had spent in front of that fire, whether it was simply drinking or something that involved far less clothing. "Although, I do love the outdoors, thanks to you."

"I really corrupted you, huh?" he sneered, teasing back.

"Oh, more than that." Daryl let out a deep, breathy chuckle before he pulled her toward him and sealed her lips with a kiss, smiling against her warm skin. She laughed softly and leaned against him, their walk slowing down until they were standing still in the middle of the field, the long shadows of the trees stretching out toward them like dark fingers. Using the strength that Jamie always marvelled, he hoisted her up with one arm, letting her hook her legs on his hips and begin walking them toward the tent.

"You're too damn light," he accused when he pulled away, pressing another kiss against the corner of her mouth. "You need to eat more."

"Just cause I'm lighter than I used to be doesn't mean I'm 'too light'," Jamie defended, before taking his lips once more and silencing him before he could chance continuing with the conversation. It would be just her luck for him to suddenly get the idea to force feed her or some other activity that included her gaining some weight.

Daryl quickly dropped the duffel bag in their tent, but surprised Jamie when he continued on instead of stopping as she had expected him to. Placing her on her feet, he took her cold fingers in his own and pulled her along a path that had been worn into the ground throughout the years. She tried to question him, but he would turn around and place a kiss against her lips before continuing on. A smile graced her lips before she could stop herself and she followed after him in silence after the first couple of times.

When they reached the end of the path, Daryl led her in front of him and placed his hand over her eyes, making her burst into laughter.

"What is this, Daryl?" she asked in breathless laughter, letting him slowly guide her along as he carefully watched for any movement around them. Everyone said that the property was secure, but he didn't trust a flimsy fence, especially if it was worth his life. Or Jamie's. "Sure, put the one that can't see in front," Jamie continued, reaching down and smacking Daryl's thigh. He laughed, before bending slightly lower to her height, level with her ear.

"I'd never let anythin' happen to ya, Angel."

Jamie nearly stumbled when the dirt beneath her feet suddenly cut off and she was walking on wood, the deep thunk of her boots hitting the compressed material the only sounds that she could hear. But as she began to concentrate, Jamie realized that she could also hear the quiet, relaxing lulls of water. Daryl pulled his hands back and allowed her to open her eyes, looking forward over the remaining length of the dock and the pond that he usually came to when he needed to be away from everyone. A bright smile rose to Jamie's face as she looked over the span of the water, the colourful trees reflecting off the water and giving a picture perfect scene.

Walking onward, she stepped carefully to the edge of the docks and looked down into the dark water, watched as leaves rippled along the surface. A large gust of wind rushed over the water, carrying with it the smell of moist leaves and chill of autumn. Closing her eyes against the wind, she inhaled the natural smell and leaned her head back.

Her back soon met with Daryl's chest as he stepped directly behind her, leaning down to press a kiss against her forehead before he wrapped her in his arms, enveloping her in warmth and warding off the chill of the impending night. Leaning her head back on his shoulder, Jamie's warm eyes looked up and were met with the beauty of Daryl's blue irises, the happiness in his eyes bringing a flush to her cheeks and causing her skin to tingle pleasantly.

"I love it," she whispered, speaking of the view that he had brought for her to see. "I love  _you_."

"Love you, too," Daryl mimicked, leaning his cheek against hers and looking forward once more, returning their attention to the trees and leaves. Jamie hummed happily and lifted her hands to rest on Daryl's arms, stealing his warmth and enjoying the rough feel of his jacket sleeves under her fingers. The moment was quiet and peaceful, the perfect end to their quiet day away from camp. Jamie couldn't bring herself to care that they were exposed or that they had basically abandoned the others; she would feel bad later, when she wasn't in Daryl's arms and happier than she had been in a while.

Gently removing her hand from his arm, Jamie looked over to Daryl as he manoeuvred her around, turning her to face him. As confused by the motion as she was, she still smiled and stepped up against him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and ghosting a kiss against his lips.

"Still want to go get married in Vegas?" Daryl asked tauntingly, though the humour was light. Jamie smirked and leaned against him heavily, pressing another kiss against his chapped lips and lifting her fingers to caress his nape.

"I would marry you in my apartment, with a friend legalized over the internet, wearing nothing but lingerie," she answered, getting a smirk as her reward for a perfect reply. He took a moment to try and picture her standing before him in her living room wearing nothing but a pair of expensive, sexy lingerie. "And what would you wear, my dear?" she asked with true curiosity in her voice, raising a blonde eyebrow at him in question.

"Nothin'."

Humming in approval, she leaned her head forward to rest her chin on his shoulder, pressing a lingering kiss against his neck. A shiver travelled up her spine as a gust of wind flew over the water, carrying the cold air along in a rush of movement. Daryl's hands splayed on her back, emitting heat, and drew a content sigh from her. "This is wonderful," she finally whispered.

"Jamie," Daryl started carefully, going completely still. The blonde in his arms frowned slightly before drawing back and looking at him with wonder and faint worry in her eyes. She wasn't exactly feeling very well about the tone of voice that he had used when saying her name. It wasn't a tone she had heard often and she didn't know whether or not to be concerned on what was to come afterword. Before she could speak, though, Daryl pulled completely from her arms.

Opening her mouth to call him back, she paused when he stopped moving less than a foot away from her and instead, lowered himself down. Confused for only a moment, her brain soon registered the fact that he was all the way down on one knee before her, looking up to her with clear blue eyes as the orange colour of the sunset, and the shades reflected off the leaves of the trees, gave his skin a reddish hue.

"Since the outbreak, I've been thinking about all of the opportunities that I've lost; both with you and in general. I swore I'd never get down on one knee for someone, simply 'cause it was tradition, but I don't want either of us to miss the opportunity." Reaching forward, Jamie's heart leapt in her chest as he took her hand in his and laced their fingers together, never once breaking eye contact. "This time, I ain't asking you from hundreds of miles away and over a phone; Jamie Knight, will you marry me?"

The brilliance of Jamie's smile nearly made everything worth it as she looked down at Daryl, before she nodded her head, "Yes, Daryl, I would give the world to marry you." Instead of standing up as she had expected, however, Daryl reached into his pocket and pulled his hand back from hers, unlacing their fingers, before holding onto her palm gently. To her shock, she watched as he lifted a gold ring with a small blue sapphire in the center up to her hand, the fading light catching the jewels.

It was a perfect fit.

Rising to his feet, Daryl caught Jamie up in his arms and spun her around, lifting her feet from the dock and drawing a breathy laugh of joy and awe from her.


	37. All My Secrets

_Jamie groaned when she woke up to pounding in her head, even though there was a reassuring cold pressure resting on top of her scalp. It was better than a painkiller could have been and she found herself reaching up to press it more firmly against her skull, trying to transfer more of the cold into her head. It helped, a bit, but she wished more than anything that she could simply remove the pain entirely._

" _Glad to see you're awake," an unfamiliar voice said a couple of feet away from her. Jamie jumped, bolting up before she could think it through and her head protested immediately. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," the man continued. Jamie finally managed to open her eyes, seeing that she was in a regular bedroom but the windows had been boarded up and there was next to no light._

" _What…what?" she managed, deciding that that pretty much covered exactly what she was asking._

" _You were in a car accident, do you remember?" he asked carefully, moving over slowly to place a chair beside the bed and allow Jamie to actually see him. He was a man in his late forties, hair beginning to grey with his lines apparent on his face from years of laughing and smiling. "The girls that live in the apartment next to me got a hold of you before those things did, but they didn't know what to do so they brought you to me. You probably don't have a concussion, but I think we should be careful about letting you sleep in too much more."_

" _And those things?" she choked out, glancing over at him. He didn't answer right away, instead grabbing a bottle of water and popping the seal and twisting open the cap. He motioned for her to tilt her head back and carefully poured water into her mouth, letting her swallow before it flowed out of her open mouth._

" _We don't know exactly what's going on," he answered finally, "but those people aren't people anymore. They are just like you said; things. Out of nowhere, people suddenly starting to get real sick, and the ones that died came back to life, all blood thirsty and shit." Jamie was slightly surprised to hear the cuss come from his mouth, since he looked like such a nice, older man. "As far as I know, you get bit and you're screwed. You're lucky those girls got to you so soon or you'd be dead right now."_

" _Where are they?"_

" _Closing up the rest of the apartment," he mumbled, looking away from her and toward the bedroom door. "They're kind of freaked out right now and we're making sure this place is sealed up good. I ain't takin' a chance of letting those things into my place while I'm sleeping."_

" _Where exactly is this apartment?"_

" _Fortview," he answered calmly. Jamie recognized the name blearily, remembering when she had passed the sign getting out of the town of her way back to Daryl before she crashed. "You've only been out a day, if you're wondering. They found you yesterday morning. Thought you might be worried about that." Jamie numbly nodded her head, reaching up weakly once more and placed her hand on the ice pack, sighing softly._

" _Thank you," she breathed softly._

" _What happened to you?"_

" _Guess there's a reason people have speed limits after all."_

Balancing dishes in tall stacks on one arm wasn't something that had come easily to Jamie, but after having to work her ass off to pay for her schooling—which was apparently pointless, considering the world ended—she learned many new traits. She could memorize orders like no one would believe, balance an unimaginable amount of dishes, somehow not scald herself with boiling coffee or water, and manoeuvre around a crowded area without dropping or spilling something. At the time, she had thought the traits were pointless, but after having a meal in Hershel's home with everyone present, things got crowded fast.

"I still don't get how you do that," Daryl commented as he watched her stack four empty plates, eight pieces of silverware, two cups and a saucer onto one arm, using the other to keep it in place. His eyes raked over her body, from the stack of dishes in her arm to along her bicep and shoulders, showing the muscle tone.

"Whoa," Carl gapped, getting a laugh from Jamie. "Where did you learn that?"

"Many jobs that paid for University," she explained, picking up his plate as well and watching the shock and enjoyment dance along his face.

"Oh, I know about that," Andrea agreed, collecting some of the others dishes to take to the kitchen. "Where did you waitress?" she asked curiously, inspecting Jamie as she moved carefully but fluently around Carl's seat and made for the kitchen. The muscles definition was clearly visible with the amount of weight piled onto her arm, and Andrea found herself jealous of the other woman. She was able to pull off such strength and yet she didn't look overly large because of the muscle.

"Just about everywhere," Jamie answered, sliding the stack onto the counter and shaking her arm lightly to get some feeling back into it. "Cafés, diners, fast food places. Anything that was easy, short shifted and paid, I did." Andrea placed her dishes beside Jamie's, watching the other woman's hands as she began to sort through everything, putting all of the utensils on one plate while piling up the rest of the plates, collected the cups and putting everything in a place so it would be easier to clean.

It was when she was putting the cups aside that she caught the glint of gold and jewels on her left ring finger. "Oh my God," she gasped, snatching up Jamie's hand before she even had a chance to jump and bringing her fingers up to see, inspecting the ring that was on the fourth. "Oh my God, he gave you a ring?"

Jamie's face was flushed as she looked at the dishes still, avoiding Andrea's eyes. It wasn't like they were best friends; this wasn't a moment that they were supposed to have. Jamie never imagined that Andrea would be a person she gossiped with about an engagement ring. That was meant for the friends she had back at home; even though her home technically wasn't there anymore.

"A couple nights ago," she finally answered, pulling her hand back and turning to go get the rest of the dishes from the table. Rick and Shane were leaving to drive Randal out that morning and the group had decided that they would have a breakfast in Hershel's dining room together, everyone pitching in. Andrea caught her arm before she could get very far and pulled her back quickly and quietly.

"What happened? Where did he get the ring?"

Sighing, Jamie realized that she probably wasn't going to get out of this very easily. "He found a little silk bag hanging from the rear view mirror of a guy's car when we went to the highway. I guess his wife died because he had the wedding and engagement ring and some other things in the bag." Andrea looked slightly unsettled at the thought of the ring once belonging to a dead person, but Jamie just rolled her eyes before continuing on back into the kitchen. Lori avoided her eyes as she handed her some dishes to take in, several people in the room noticing but no one saying anything. Rick frowned as he glanced over at Jamie, but noticed that she was looking at Daryl, who looked at Lori with a faint glare.

Finally looking down at Lori, she refused to meet his eyes either.

"Are you guys going to be leaving right away?" Andrea asked behind Jamie, looking over to where Shane was reclined back in the chair at the far end of the table.

"Yea, we don't want to take the chance of getting back too late," Rick answered for him. "We'll be heading out in a couple of minutes." He nodded his thanks to Jamie as she collected his plate and coffee mug, turning his attention back to the group. "If all goes well, we should be back long before sundown."

"We'll hold the fort here, then," T-Dog said, rubbing at his face as he glancing around the room. The tension in the room was thick, even though no one was commenting on it. Eyes glanced all around at one another, looking from person to person with different emotions in their eyes. Jamie moved from the kitchen to the dining room, hardly ever stopping in between aside from the odd time of speaking with someone now and again.

She joked around and poked fun with Carl, pretending to balance a plate on his head while making sure that it would never actually fall. Rick smiled at the happiness in his son and how well Jamie got along with him, seemingly without even having to work for it. Carl had been so hesitant and untrusting with people that he was pleased to see him opening up again. Lori, however, hated the relationship that his son had with the woman and didn't try very hard to hide it.

"What do you have going on today?" Rick asked as he looked up at Jamie, who had finally stopped moving around and was standing still behind Daryl's chair, her hand resting on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around to rest in the curve at the base of her spine, palm at her hip.

"I'm going to be going out hunting with Daryl, see if we can get something big. It's been a while since we've had some good meat and we're going to need it if it's getting colder." Rick nodded along, looking between Daryl and Jamie. He paused when he caught the sight of the ring on her finger, looking up and catching her eyes. She was giving him a discrete look that told him to be quiet for the time. When he inclined his head in answer she smirked faintly and winked, before reaching forward and stealing Daryl's glass of orange juice.

"If we wait too long there won't be anything left to hunt, the weather's driving most game out of the area," Daryl explained.

"You goin' to be back today?" Rick asked carefully, remembering in the past when Daryl had gone hunting he was disappear for days at a time in order to track some of the larger game he could find. Jamie nodded in answer, her cheeks slightly puffed at the orange juice that she was holding in her mouth for a moment. Daryl pinched her hip and laughed when she nearly spat out the juice in shock, hitting him on the head in retaliation.

It was in a large wave of people that everyone dispersed, moving off to prepare for the day and all that they were individually doing. Jamie pulled her hair back as she moved toward the kitchen to help clean up while Daryl went to get some supplies to take with them for the day. She had barely stepped into the room when a hard hand grasped her bicep and spun her around to face them, a glare firmly held on her face.

"What the fuck?" Jamie asked, trying to pull her arm from his grip but only ending up getting him riled. Her shoulder met the wood of the cabinet as he pushed her roughly backward. Her eyes darkened with rage as she glared deep into his eyes, wanting nothing more than to hit him. "Shane, let me go."

"What did you do to Lori?" he demanded, shaking at her arm and drawing a pained grunt from her when her shoulder joint was jostled rather harshly. "I know something happened between you two, she's been avoiding you and looking pissed off since the barn walkers got out-"

"Got out?" Jamie mimicked, finally succeeding in freeing her arm. "You  _let_   _them_  out, jackass. Now back the fuck up." Shane just short of  _snarled_  in her face, causing her to instinctively drive her elbow against his ribs and force him back in order for him to collect himself. "I didn't do anything to Lori, just a difference of opinion."

"Hey, Shane?" Rick called, appeared in the doorway. His demeanour suddenly hardened when he saw how threateningly close Shane was standing to a very pissed off looking Jamie. "What going on?" he asked darkly, looking between the two. Shane continued to look down at Jamie a moment longer before he stepped away, giving her space. She never relaxed her posture, though, and Rick could see that she had her hand angled toward her knife in reaction, ready to protect herself.

"Nothin', just having a chat."

"Fuck you," she snapped back. Shane glared at her as he walked passed Rick, his shoulders locked back threateningly. Jamie only relaxed slightly when he was no longer in the room, leaning back against the counter and letting her hand drop, heaving an angry sigh. Rick stepped up and placed a hand on her shoulder, getting her to look at him.

"Are you alright?"

Nodding her head, she mumbled out, "yea."

"What was that about?" he asked in a hushed voice, concerned over Shane's actions. If he did something like that with Jamie he had reason to worry about what he might to with others, like Randal.

"Honestly? I don't know," she answered, looking confused and shaken. "I should get the dishes done so Daryl and I can get going." She turned to leave before stopping and placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be find, but you be careful out there. We've never travelled out that far and don't know if it's safe. Alright?"

"I'll be fine," he assured carefully. "And congratulations," he added on, motioning down to her hand that was on his shoulder, the new ring catching the light. She smiled bashfully, something that he rarely ever saw with Jamie, and nodded her thanks before turning and moving over to the sink and beginning to pile plates into the water filled sink.

Soon after Rick and Shane left with Randal, Jamie was pulling on another long sleeved shirt to her layers and hoisting her light bag of food and water onto her shoulder. Daryl was snapping the extra arrows for his bow into the small slots on the top, wearing an autumn jacket underneath his leather vest. Jamie completely admitted that he looked incredibly appealing, just as he usually was when he was getting ready to go out hunting.

Carrying her rifle once more was great and it gave her a sense of security that she hadn't fully realized had been missing. Her arm was slightly stiff from Shane's grip on it, but she didn't want to tell Daryl about it encase he decided to get on his bike and hunt Shane down, perhaps take his gun and dump him in the wild without anything to take care of himself. She took a moment to imagine the scene before returning her attention to Daryl, who was straightening up and directing his attention to where Jamie was standing.

"Let's get the hell outta here," she declared, moving over to him and catching sight of his smirk before he rushed up to take lead into the forest. They wouldn't be travelling too far away from the farm, but they needed to get far enough away so that they could make sure that the deer or other large game weren't as sparse. The amount of activity on the farm probably had the animals avoiding the place.

"You sure you're okay to be walkin' around on that leg?" Daryl asked as he looked back at her, seeing that she seemed to be walking perfectly fine. In the time that it had been since she got it cut up in the woods it had healed very well, allowing her to get back into the routine of helping out with more of the physical labour on the farm instead of helping with laundry or watch duty.

She was just glad that she didn't need to worry about bandaging it anymore. "I'll do fine. If I need a break, I'll just jump up on your back," she countered, getting a bark of a laugh from Daryl. The walked in near silence throughout most of the morning, the sun blocked out by the trees that were left covered in leaves, the warmth pressing down on their backs now and again.

Jamie didn't mind the silence, following after Daryl as she watched him inspect the surrounding forest closely, pausing only when he found something that appeared to be a track that they might be able to follow. It wasn't until noon that he was able to catch the sight of deer tracks, pushed into the mud near a creek and almost hidden by leaves. Jamie hadn't seen it, not even thought something was wrong, but Daryl had stopped them almost right away and crouched to inspect the tracks.

Motioning with his head, he carefully stepped over the creek and began moving through the bushes, eyes to the ground. Jamie was silent behind him, years of accompanying him on hunting trips teaching her exactly how to move around so that she wasn't detected by anything in the words. Several times Daryl himself had forgotten that she was behind him, only a couple of meters away.

Daryl stopped suddenly and lifted his hand to signal Jamie to stop, crouching low to the ground as he looked through a cluster of dying trees in front of them. Jamie kneeled down behind him, adjusting her rifle encase it was a walker that had caught his attention. They had agreed that the guns they brought would be an absolute last resort, because if walkers didn't screw up their hunting then the loud gunshot would.

The heady scent of the moist leaves and soil swirled around Jamie, a welcoming embrace that she was used to whenever going out with Daryl to the hunting cabin that his father had abandoned. The thought of the hunting cabin brought a flush to her cheeks as she bit her lip to remain still so that nothing interfered with Daryl's concentration.

Watching carefully, Daryl soon turned around where he was couched. There was a light in his eye that Jamie saw nearly every time she had accompanied him on hunting trips; now, it was the light that told her they had just struck a new form of gold. That could only mean one thing, and it most certainly was not a flashy sports car of an abandoned bag of cash. Jamie grinned back at him, remaining completely still as he ducked forward and stole a quick 'good luck' kiss. It had become a form of ritual whenever she was accompanying him hunting, and if not while they were hunting then she could more than likely have a very long goodbye kiss.

Nodding her head, she motioned him to continue with a reassurance that she would watch his back for walkers. They hadn't seen any while on Hershel's land, and while off of it there had only been one that was stumbling about without any true destination. It had actually, and thankfully, been moving in the direction away from the farm.

"So," Andrea asked as she looked over to where Lori was moving around the kitchen, mostly just trying to think of something to do. "Have you seen Jamie's new bling?"

"What?" Lori asked in surprise as she stopped in the action of stacking the dried plates that were in the rack beside the sink. "Bling?"

"Daryl got her an engagement ring; apparently a week ago. Are we really that ignorant to those two that we didn't notice she was wearing an engagement ring for an entire week?" Andrea asked incredulously. Lori leaned against the counter, looking out the window as she tried to process what Andrea had told her. It didn't help the guilt that she already felt about basically calling the other woman a whore, accusing her of not only sleeping with her husband but also cheating on her own fiancé.

"Well, they do tend to spend their time away from the rest of us. I thought that Jamie would be getting Daryl to move them back by now," she answered at last, resuming her task a moment later. "What does it matter, anyway? It's not like we're going to be invited to the future wedding—if there is one."

"I admit, I didn't expect things between them to ever actually progress. I mean, they've said that they are engaged but she wasn't wearing a ring before the outbreak," Andrea continued on, leaning casually against the counter as she watched Lori move about. She didn't even offer to help for a moment, only stood to the side. Lori didn't allow for her irritation of the fact to show and instead just finished up with emptying the dry rack.

"It's not our business; how they got engaged in the first place is between them." Andrea frowned. She did want to know, especially with the way that they both acted. They were so different that one would think they would always been at odds with one another, but it was the opposite effect. She was probably obsessing, but there wasn't all that much more to do when the world had come to an end. Besides, obsessing over other people helped her to push aside all of the things that she could be obsessing about in her own life.


	38. Soulless Shell

Rick sat on the porch at the back of Hershel's home, looking out over the property. He constantly glanced toward the back forest, hoping that he might see Jamie and Daryl come from the trees. She had said they would be back by the end of the day. That was yesterday, nearly twenty-four hours before and there wasn't so much as a gunshot sound echoed from the distance. He was unnerved, he would admit. Rick knew perfectly well that the both of them could take perfect care of themselves, but that didn't stop him from worrying. They were in the forest with only the trees as a sturdy thing to surround them. They didn't take their tent with them, so he wasn't sure what they had done the night before for sleeping.

Everyone was assuring him that there was nothing to worry about, but he just wouldn't bring himself  _not_  to get concerned. He found he was growing all the more enraged with Shane, as well, when the older man just scoffed and smirked when they weren't back before nightfall. He was beginning to become a problem that Rick was worried would soon grow too big to be handled quietly. Even before he had opened up the barn, Shane had been acting out in a way that endangered everyone. He saw that he was trying to protect the group, but Rick new better. Shane's only concern was for  _his_  wife and  _his_  son.

"They're not going to come back just because you're sitting here staring," Dale said as he approached quietly from the camp they had set up near Hershel's house. Rick looked over to the older man and smiled faintly, unable to truly show happiness, fake or not.

"I'm just worried," he replied, looking back out at the trees. "They've been gone all night. I know that they both can take care of themselves, but…"

"It's easier knowing they're safe then not knowing at all," Dale finished, slowly taking a seat next to Rick and turning his gaze out to follow the younger man's. "Don't worry, they'll watch each other's backs and be back before you know it. Daryl used to be gone for days and it usually meant that he was following a good catch," Dale explained, looking to Rick in the corner of his eye. "Maybe they're bringing us back some good meat."

"Yea," Rick agreed quietly, not entirely sure.

"So you and Jamie are pretty close," Dale continued, straightening his posture. Rick seemed confused at the question for a moment before he nodded his head and looked into Dale's aged eyes, far wiser then the people of the group gave him credit for.

"I'm glad I met her; we were both able to find the people that we love and stay together in the process." Shifting in place, Rick smiled as he thought back to the long ride they had to Atlanta, both in the car and on the horse. "She told me all about Daryl, and I hadn't really thought that she was telling the truth with a lot of it. Then when I actually met him I knew that she had spoken every word from the heart. She really would die for him."

"I'm sure," Dale agreed. "Daryl never mentioned her before you came around and said her name, but I had seen him looking at that picture a couple of times. Sitting on the RV, people tended to forget that I could see the whole camp, and some of the things I saw are going with me to the grave. One time when everyone was focused on making dinner, Daryl was sitting outside of his tent, looking at that picture he had of Jamie. Merle came over and tried to take it from him and it was like a switch went off inside of him; Daryl wasn't the weaker, younger brother anymore. He punched Merle almost hard enough to knock him down." Dale paused and looked over to Rick, seeing that he had the officer's full attention. "I'd never even seen him stand up to Merle before that time."

Nodding his head, Rick couldn't help but to smile. "Jamie probably would have loved to see that. She's got a hate for Merle that I'm surprised by. Although, she can definitely hold a grudge. I'm pretty sure that she's still got a bit of a hatred for Andrea shooting Daryl, even if they supposedly put their differences aside."

"I don't think that Jamie will ever forgive Andrea for hurting him," Dale agreed as he nodded his head. "But it's like I told Andrea when she was worrying after she shot him; we've all wanted to shoot Daryl." Rick laughed at Dale's words, shaking his head in amusement.

"Try telling that to Jamie."

"I'd like to live, thank you very much," Dale jested back, causing both to laugh for a moment. "He's a good person to have watching your back," he continued on after a moment, returning to the previous conversation. "I'd rather have Daryl looking out for me on a hunting trip or when scavenging for supplies than I would Shane."

"Dale-"

"I know that you've noticed it, Rick," Dale interrupted, turning serious as his voice lowered to a whisper. "Shane's dangerous. He laughed when Jamie and Daryl didn't come back. He's going to get someone killed one of these days if we're not careful; and I'm worried that Jamie's on his target list. She and Lori have been at odds recently—why, I don't know—and he's getting protective. If I were you, I'd find out what's going on."

Nodding his head, Rick frowned in through. "I noticed that yesterday. During breakfast, Lori kept avoiding Jamie, and Daryl was glaring at her. Afterword, I went looking for Shane so we could take Randal out on the roads and I found him cornering Jamie in the kitchen. I didn't like the way that he was looking at her, he really did look like he wanted to hurt her."

"If Shane hurts her, Daryl might not hesitate to hurt him as well, maybe even kill him. If Daryl got protective over a picture, I don't want to know what he'll do if Shane actually hurts Jamie."

"Hey, is this some kind of new morning meeting place?" Andrea called as she made her way over from the camp, wrapped tightly in her jacket as her breath fogged in front of her. "Hope no one's keeping secrets; that's the last thing that we need right now." Her words were meant in jest, but both of the men knew that they were very true and something to be concerned over. "Ah, look who's back."

Dale and Rick both looked up toward the trees, spotting Jamie and Daryl's distant forms making their way forward.

"And they brought an early dinner."

Though he tried not to show it, Daryl was glowing with pride as he and Jamie put the body of the deer onto the tarp that Hershel had lent them, keeping it out of the dirt as much as they could. Their arms were sore from carrying the load, they were tired and sweaty and felt like they could eat the animal raw, but they were content. Jamie was only beaming smiles as she relayed to Rick how Daryl had found the tracks around noon the previous day. The doe had been heading toward the camp, so they followed after until nearly dawn, finally taking it down just off the property and carrying it the rest of the way back when it started to head off in another direction.

"You've been up all night?" Andrea asked in shock as she looked between the two.

"Even if we hadn't been tracking, we didn't exactly bring a tent so it wouldn't have been a very good night sleep," Jamie said as she handed her rifle over to Dale when he offered to clean it for her.

"Why don't you two go and clean up," Hershel offered, motioning back toward the house. "Offering to share the meat, the least I can do for you is let you take a shower."

"What happened with Randal?" Jamie asked, turning her attention over to Rick. When she saw him frown, she knew that something had definitely gone wrong. Looking at him carefully, it didn't take more than a glance to see the cuts and bruises that he had suddenly acquired, but she knew better than to outright ask. Her best bet was on Shane, though, since Randal was so scrawny that she knew even she could take him on.

"The place we chose didn't turn out to be so safe; it was crawling with walkers. So we brought him back here and we're going to think on it a bit more. We're trying to figure out what his group is like, what kind of a threat they pose. All that." Rick was solemn as he spoke, causing Jamie and Daryl to exchange a look. "You two should go and clean up, we're going to be sorting all of the Randal things out so you're not going to be missing much."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea," Rick assured immediately, nodding his head for added emphasis. "Take some time, take a  _nap_ ," he encouraged, causing Jamie to let out a tired laugh as he reminded her of just how desperately she wanted to sleep.

"I don't think I can make it through a shower," Jamie jested, letting her head fall back as she swayed on her feet. Daryl wrapped an arm around her waist and let her lean against him, even as his own body was weighed down by his fatigue as well. "Actually, forget that. I don't think I can make it to the  _tent_." Rick smiled in amusement while Daryl smirked against her temple when he had moved to kiss the warm skin there.

"You go get the shower ready and I'll get us some clothes, how about that?" Daryl finally asked, his voice hushed for only her to hear. Her response was a nod as she turned her head to catch his lips in a quick, thank you kiss. She was reluctant to let him leave, considering that he was the one that was holding her up, but decided against keeping him there longer and slowly took up her own weight again. Daryl leaned down to kiss her forehead one last time before he turned and departed, his stride slowing only slightly from his lack of sleep.

Jamie turned to Rick, seeing that he had looked away from the moment to offer privacy. "So, I don't believe it was walkers that did that to your face," she said in a soft, yet still demanding, voice. Rick looked to the ground, reluctant to bring up his fight with Shane. "It's not like I don't already know who did it, Rick," she continued, moving to stand beside him so that no one overheard. "What happened between you two?"

"Everything just came out into the open," Rick answered softly, a hint of dark malice hidden in his words that had Jamie frowning in concern. She knew that Rick would do anything in order to save his family. "I don't know what Shane is going to do, but I know things are never going to be like they were before he thought I was dead and-" he caught himself before he could continue and looked down to the ground with a harsh glare, crossing his arms over his chest. "He's dangerous, Jay, promise me you'll be careful around him."

Jamie looked at Rick's face for a moment, his eyes refusing to meet hers, before she reached up and placed her hand on the back of his head gently, running her fingers through his hair and drawing his eyes toward her. "I promise," she assured with an insistent voice. "Besides, I have Daryl to kick his ass for me if anything goes wrong."

Rick cracked a tired smile, his face suddenly looking so pale and worn down.

"You should get some rest, too, Rick. You deserve it. We'll decide what to do with Randal tomorrow." He nodded against the hand that she had slipped into his hair, offering her a tired smile and bringing her into a one armed hug, keeping a loose hold on her waist as she slipped her arm around the back of his neck to return.

"I'm glad you two came back safe, you had me worried," he commented, pulling back enough that they could look at one another properly. Jamie laughed and nodded her head.

"I was a bit worried for a while there, too. When I saw your face, I thought maybe Randal's group had found you," she mumbled out, reaching up with her other hand and softly tracing around a particularly angry looking cut. "You be careful, too. Can't go and having you die on me now, can I?" she teased, getting a smile in answer. Rising on her toes, as Rick was quite tall, she pressed a kiss against his forehead before pulling away.

Lori glared from across the camp, not even knowing what they were saying but still hating that Jamie was able to get so close to Rick without even doing anything. She was able to comfort her husband in a way that she couldn't and it made her blood boil with jealousy. Jamie began walking away then, heading for the house. Lori hated that Rick watched her walk off, she hated that Jamie stood tall even though she was about to collapse, she hated that Jamie was actually quite attractive. She hated that Rick was leaving her behind for the blonde.

"You're going to burn holes into the back of her head, hun," Dale's voice said from beside her, causing Lori to flinch and drop her gaze as her glare relaxed into a frown. "What's going on, Lori. You and Jamie used to get along so well when she first joined the group."

"I know," Lori sighed, her head dropping down into her hands as she sighed. "I've messed up, Dale. I accused her of sleeping with Rick and now she and Daryl  _hate_  me," she explained, looking up to the old man. Dale sighed as he moved down to sit beside her, taking off his hat.

"If I go by what I'm seeing, I'd say that you still think she had Rick are more than friends," Dale began cautiously. "Maybe it's you who is holding on to this too tightly, Lori. Have you actually had a conversation with Jamie?" Lori's head hung down and he knew that he had his answer. "Maybe after she and Daryl had cleaned up and rested for a while, you actually talk to her about it?"

"She's stealing my husband from me," Lori hissed out, glaring at Dale as her anger reared back up.

"Have you thought that maybe she's just someone that is there for him now that he and Shane aren't what they used to be?" Dale corrected calmly, his eyes sincere and his words striking Lori deep in her heart. "Rick doesn't have someone like he did in the past; and you have to admit, Jamie's just got that masculine quality that makes her more of one of the guys than you. Years of being with Daryl, I assume."

They both watched as Daryl stepped up to Rick a couple of minutes after Jamie had gone inside, the pair of them beginning to walk toward the house. The bag that Jamie had first had with her when she joined the group was slung over his shoulder, no doubt with a change of clothes for the pair of them. Dale had to be wrong, Lori concluded, because both Jamie and Daryl couldn't both take up Shane's place of trusted best friend.

She didn't know what they were talking about, but both men were serious and Rick was agreeing to whatever Daryl was saying to him.

Tossing her clothes into a pile on the floor, Jamie groaned in contentment as she stepped into the shower and adjusted the temperature to a warmer level. Ducking her head back under the spray, Jamie couldn't stop herself from sighing in sheer pleasure as her muscles began to uncoil and relax from the on-edge, stressful night that she had been through. It had helped having Daryl there, knowing that he had her back, but she had barely relaxed aside from when they had decided to take a break for an hour and climbed a tree to make sure nothing snuck up on them.

It wasn't fun picking the leaves out of her hair afterword, but she was glad for the time to let her heart return to a normal pace.

Looking down at her feet, the water was flowing from her body in a murky brown colour as the dirt was swept away. Curling and uncurling her toes, the bone joints cracked loudly at the movements and Jamie smiled. Having to keep her boots on all night was just one more thing to add to the list of discomforts. Sloshing the water with her feet, she pushed the dirt toward the drain and straightened up to continue soaking the length of her blonde hair. It was getting far longer than she was used to.

The sudden snap of the shower curtain rings scraped over the metal pole as the curtain was pushed open and caused Jamie to jump, spinning around.

"Daryl, you ass-"

Shane stared back at her, a glare in place as he held the curtain open in one hand and his gun in the other. "Scream and you're going to wish I shot you," he warned, a glare dead set on his face and causing Jamie's heart to hit the shower floor at her feet. The sight of the gun level with her gut was so frightening that she didn't even have the thought in her head to cover herself from his eyes, her wet body bare to see.

"What the hell are you doing?" she hissed out, glaring at him.

"I don't like you," Shane said in an even, dark voice. The look in his eyes was something Jamie hadn't seen in a long time and she wasn't sure how to react to it. There were very few people that had such a look in their eyes and more often than not it was when she was watching the news and someone's mug shot came up on the screen that she saw it. "Ever since you came to the group, Daryl's been getting himself a pair of balls and hasn't been backing down into his place. Now, Rick's starting to defend the two of you?"

"What does it matter to you?" she asked, returned his glare full force.

"You need to be put in your place and it is not playing with the big boys," Shane warned, taking a step closer to the shower so that he was only two feet away from her. Jamie's stomach knotted as she repressed the urge to run or scream for Daryl.

"So where is it, then? With that bitch you've made into your own person whor-"

Shane swung in that moment, not even bothering with the gun. Jamie was faster, though, and ducked quickly before she dove under his outstretched arm and snatched her knife from the pile of clothes. The tiles of the floor and her wet feet didn't work well together, however, and she slipped before she could even turn back toward Shane, a resounding scream tearing from her lungs when she landed on her hip with her bad knee colliding with the cold, hard surface.

Gasping in pain, she pulled herself along the floor to get away from Shane, keeping her knife in her hand. He was swearing loudly as his knuckles bled from the impact with the wall tiles, a crack running up one of them. Just as he turned for her, the door flew open and Daryl rushed into the cramped space, Rick only a step behind him. Jamie nearly wanted to sob with joy at the sight of them.

Daryl took one look at Shane and she could have sworn she saw murder in his eyes. Half hiding behind the laundry basket and her own legs, Jamie had her knife pointed toward Shane as she trembled in the cold that was beginning to flow into the room from the open door. Daryl didn't hesitate to lift his crossbow, pointing the loaded arrow directly between Shane's eyes, resulting with the ex-cop dropping the gun to the floor out of reaction.

"Daryl," Rick tried to warn, but he wasn't hearing him. The younger man's chest was heaving and he had the intent to kill written all over his face. "Get him out of here but don't kill him," Rick growled out, leaning toward Daryl to stress his words. "Get him away from Jamie, Daryl. I'll make sure she's okay, but you need to get him out of this house."

Daryl didn't seem to need to be told anymore and lowered his weapon in order to grab a hold of Shane, suddenly much stronger than he had been the first time he tried to take a swing at him when Merle was left in the city. As soon as he was out of the room, Rick picked up his gun and tucked it into the back of his belt and snatched a towel from the rack, stepping up to Jamie carefully. She had nearly gone limp as soon as he was out of the room, aside from the white knuckle hold she still had on the hilt of Daryl's hunting knife.

"It's alright, I got you," he assured, holding open the towel as a barrier between his eyes and her body. He barely caught her as Jamie lunged into his arms, shaking uncontrollably. Wrapping her in the large, white towel, Rick tried to soothe her by stroking a hand along her back. The sobs finally started as she broke down, her knife clattering to the floor behind Rick.

Unknown to her, Rick was as tense as a taut wire, his own hands shaking in absolute rage as he looked toward the wall Jamie had been pressed against. Shane had finally gone too far.

Lori and Dale both jumped at Carol's shocked cry, vaulting to their feet as they looked toward the house. Shane hit the ground at the bottom of the steps as Daryl stood atop them, blood on his fist from where it had collided with Shane's now bloody nose. Everyone was watching as Shane pulled himself up from the dirt, unsure of what they should do as Daryl slowly stepped down the stairs.

"What did you do to her?" he growled out once he had reached Shane, taking hold of his shirt collar and pulling him up to his knees and forcing him to look him in the eye. "I swear to god, I will cut your balls off and feed them to you if you even so much as  _looked_  at her-"

Shane let out a raspy laugh, his ribs aching from where Daryl had kneed him on his way down the stairs to the front door. "I'm surprised someone that looks like  _that_  is with someone like you," he laughed, blood pouring from his nose and over his lips as he sneered up at the enraged man. Daryl didn't hesitate and pulled his fist back for another punch, this one nearly breaking Shane's jaw as he hit the ground for a second him.

"Now I'm gunna kill ya," Daryl growled, moving back to the deck where he had dropped his crossbow. He stopped, however, when he saw that Jamie was standing there already, wearing her dirty clothes with water soaking through where she had still been wet from running out of the shower. Rick was standing behind her, his hand outstretched as he prepared to catch her encase she stumbled.

Shane stopped laughing as he looked up to her, wiping blood from his mouth and beneath his nose but only smearing more from his busted knuckles. Jamie flinched as she stepped down the porch stairs carefully, a throb of pain accompanying each stride. Daryl remained frozen as she walked passed him, toward Shane, still aiming the arrow at him. He could see that her eyes were reddened from crying, but held steel in them.

"Get up," she ordered in a cold voice, deadly calm.

Shane looked from her to Daryl, then finally up to Rick and Hershel—who had finally joined them at the commotion—before he sluggishly rose up onto his feet. Jamie stepped up to him until the crossbow nearly touched his forehead in threat, striking momentary fear in him when he saw the dead look in her eyes. "You gunna kill me now, girl?" he sneered.

"No," Jamie answered immediately, getting a surprised looked from the people around her. Lowering the weapon, Shane's smug look only remained on his face for a split second before Jamie kicked with everything that she had in her good leg, throwing her steel-toed boot right between his legs. Shane  _screamed_  as she made contact, every man in the vicinity wincing at both the sight and the sound. Shane dropped down to the ground at Jamie's feet, his hands holding his crotch as tears coursed down his cheeks. "Now what can you do with that thing?" she hissed down at him before kicking him in the chest and sending him into the dirt onto his back.

Daryl stepped forward hesitantly, partially fearing for the sake of his own testicles, and slowly placed a hand over Jamie's on his crossbow. "I think you did kill him, Angel," Daryl said carefully, stepping up beside her as she continued to glare down at him.

"Then it was too quick."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole ordeal with Shane is going to be changed slightly in this story, but the main events will follow with the show. I honestly wasn't sure about this chapter, but it's a bit of a defining point and allows Jamie's more vulnerable side to make an appearance.


	39. Self-Imposed Insanity

Once more in the shower, Jamie leaned against Daryl as the hot water cascaded down on them. His fingers were steadily running through her hair, removing all knots and tangles from the strands. Sitting on the bottom of the shower and not doing anything aside from basking in the warm water was probably one of the worst things to do in an apocalypse, considering they were wasting power and water, but Daryl wouldn't dare move and he didn't think Jamie had any intention of speaking up as she almost dozed against him.

"I think I'm starting to grow webs between my toes," Jamie finally said against Daryl's chest, feeling the rumble of his laugh more than hearing it. Reaching over his shoulder, Daryl pushed the nozzle down and turned off the torrent of water, leaving only the steam in the room to warm them. "Out in the forest all night, no problems with my knee," Jamie started as she pulled herself up to her feet, hissing when she rested her weight on the bad joint. "Come back here and within an hour Shane's fucked it up again."

"That bastard's going to get his own," Daryl promised as he rose up to stand at her side, his arm wrapping securely around her waist and helping her to step carefully from the shower. Jamie snorted as she threw a towel over Daryl's head to cover his dripping hair.

"He already got it, remember?" she asked slyly before leaning against the counter and beginning to rub at her own hair with a towel, trying to dry it as best she could. Daryl could tell that, even though she tried to hide it, she was still greatly shaken from what had happened only hours before. The anger was still eating away at Daryl but he didn't want Jamie to see it, because she could feed off of it and probably do something without thinking it through.

When Jamie straightened up and moved to begin towelling down her body, Daryl was standing directly in front of her with nothing but his own towel wrapped around his waist, riding low on his hips. His hands came to her sides, large and warm, and Jamie arched her back until her stomach nearly touched his. "He won't get it 'till he's dead," Daryl growled out, resting his forehead against hers. His lengthened hair dripped water down onto Jamie's cheeks and she shivered at the chill that accompanied the drops.

Reaching up, Jamie's arms wound around Daryl's neck as she pressed herself close against him, her towel dropping discarded to the floor. His arms tightened on her sides a moment before he embraced her in return and pressed soft kisses against the skin of her neck. Slipping her hands up into his hair, Jamie smiled to herself as she felt the nauseous feeling of fear dissipate inside of her stomach.

Daryl didn't really want to let go of Jamie, but he knew that they couldn't spend the rest of their time in the washroom.

Things had to be decided and both of them knew that they would be vital in the decisions that were to come. Not only did they have Randal as a threat, but now there was Shane to worry about. He had snuck up on Jamie, held her at gunpoint and told her that she needed to be put in her place. She was shaken to the core and angered to the point of homicidal all at once. Rick and Daryl were showing no mercy, either, as they stood firmly on Jamie's side. Shane had to go.

"We're a part of this group," Jamie said suddenly as she softly, steadily ran her fingers through the ends of Daryl's hair. "We're broken, too."

Daryl hummed in agreement as he pressed a kiss against her bare shoulder. "We're just gunna have to be the one to fix it, then, aren't we?" Jamie smiled to herself and rested her head against his with a smile before she began to pull back and retrieved her towel from the floor once more.

Lori sat across from Rick as he stared out the window to where the Shane was sharing a shed with Randal. She wasn't sure how to act or react with everything that was going on; the thing that she hated the most, even more than Rick's attention to Jamie, was the biting guilt that was welling inside of her. Jamie had been pissing her off, doing nothing in the process, and she had wished she would just leave. Instead, Shane nearly kills her.

"What are you going to do?" she finally asked in a low, meek voice.

"He's dangerous, Lori. He doesn't care who he hurts, he just wants things to stay the way he thinks they should be," Rick snapped back. "Now, what the hell is going on with you and Jamie? Shane kept going on about you and her when we were locking him up."

Lori's head fell as she let out a long breath of air, unsure of what she was supposed to say. "I asked Jamie a couple of weeks ago if she had slept with you," she blurted out, her shaking hands moving to cover her mouth as she refused to look up and watch Rick's reaction.

"Lori," Rick started, the anger evident in his voice. He stopped though, trying to calm down as he took a deep, relaxing breath. It didn't work. "After everything that happened with you and Shane, you accused Jamie of  _that_?" he snapped, leaning forward and getting in her face, causing her to flinch and lean backward. "She saved my life, she helped me to find you guys and you reward that with accusing her of the same thing that you did?"

"I didn't know, Rick," she tried to defend, lifting her eyes so she could finally look at him as tears made them appear glassy. "I saw you two together, like best friends, and I panicked. I thought that she was taking you away from me and I had only just got you back. Carl only just got his dad back-"

"You had  _no_  right, Lori. The next time you think that I cheated on you, come to me instead of the innocent party that you're accusing. The belief that Daryl was alive was the thing that kept Jamie alive, kept her going no matter what. And then you go and say she threw that away to have a one night fling with someone she knew for less than two days?"

"I'm sorry," Lori sobbed, Rick angrily stepping away when she reached for him. "I know I did wrong, Rick. I know that I hurt her, she and Daryl have both made that very clear, but I didn't think that Shane would go and try to kill her. He thinks she's a threat to me and…I don't know, decided to fix it." Rick kept his back to her, his shoulders tense and his back pole straight. "Please, Rick. I'll fix things, I promise you. I'll make everything better-"

"Shane threatened her at gunpoint, Lori. Not only is that traumatizing enough, but she was in the shower, completely exposed to him. She probably feels more than just frightened, but violated," Rick stressed, keeping his voice down so that none of the others could overhear. They all knew that Jamie wasn't taking things well, at least on the inside, and they didn't want to outright say what the biggest problem was. She was probably, in some way, fearing a sexual beating from Shane when he had ripped the shower curtain open.

Lori bowed her head as tears dripped down onto the jean pants she was wearing, leaving little dark specs. "Please, I'll make it right."

"You can't," Rick stated bluntly, turning and leaving the room without another glance back. Lori remained on the couch, the very couch Jamie had slept on after giving Carl her blood the first night at the farmhouse, crying silently.

Rick encountered Jamie and Daryl on their way down the front stairs, relieved to see that Daryl was able to bring a smile to her face as he exaggeratedly scrubbed at her wet hair with a small hand towel, nearly throwing her off balance as she laughed and swatted at his arm. She finally stopped and turned to smack him in the stomach, the towel pulled away from her hair when he moved to guard his abdomen, and Rick laughed at the mess of her hair.

"Hey, you shut it," she snapped, turning and pointing at him. Her blonde hair was still damp and sticking up in just about every direction it could manage because of Daryl's ministrations. "Do you have any idea how long it's going to take to untangle this?" she hissed as she swatted at Daryl again, but he only ducked aside with a deep laugh and began down the stairs.

"Hershel and Maggie are cooking the venison right now, it should be finished soon so you two might want to go and get yourselves sorted out. Are you staying in your tent or the house tonight?" Rick asked as Jamie limped down the rest of the steps, making sure not to stress her still raw knee.

"The tent," the both answered immediately. Rick looked concerned.

"Are you sure you should be stressing your knee with that walk?"

Jamie grinned in response and looked to Daryl. "He promised he'd carry me there and back when I needed him to," she answered evilly, getting a scoff from Daryl as he turned away in minor embarrassment. While he had his back to her, Jamie carefully—using the power in only one leg, her good one—leapt onto his back and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to keep herself up. Daryl stumbled slightly while he was trying to keep himself standing, glaring at Jamie over his shoulder.

"Fuck! Woman!" he snapped, amusement laced in his tone as Jamie laughed into his shoulder.

"Come on, man, let's go brush out this lions mane you created," Jamie teased, nudging his sides like he was a horse. Had she not been injured, Daryl would have, as he had in the past, dropped Jamie on her ass. But, seeing as he did promise to carry her, he just shook his head with a huff and started toward the door, a silently grinning Rick left behind to go and check on the food.

The sun was beginning to set along the horizon, darkening the world while it simultaneously lit it up in golden and red hues. Jamie admired the view as she watched the golden yellow leaves as they were blown forcefully from their place in the trees. The air no longer held the heat of summer, the autumn chill fully setting in. They would need to start sleeping with their clothes on if they were going to remain in their tent.

"I feel like I'm carrying you more than you're walking lately," Daryl mumbled as they made their way along the path that they had walked into the field through the many trips to and from their own little camp sight. Jamie bit him gently on the neck in retaliation, getting another bark of 'stop!' from Daryl as she laughed simply.

Rick watched them through the window for a moment before he moved into the kitchen to join the others. Andrea looked sullen while Dale had a permanent concerned look on his face, Hershel and Maggie busying themselves with cooking dinner. "How is she?" Maggie ventured to ask first, Glenn slipping into the room at the sounds of conversation.

"She's acting like nothing happened," Rick said quietly, even though she wasn't in the house. "She'll deal with it in her own way, in her own time. I think we should just act as natural as we can; don't constantly ask her if she's alright. Until we decide what to do with Shane, it's best just to avoid the topic with her." Everyone nodded silently, looking anywhere but at one another.

Hershel finally sighed and wiped his hands off on a towel. "Having both Shane and Randal on the farm is two threats too many; I don't want either or those two around my family. They're a threat to all of us," he began kindly, even though his words bit deep into everyone. "Now, I understand that that man is a friend of yours, but he's not the same person you used to know. For the sake of your group, he needs to leave. I let him stay after he broke into the barn, but this has gone too far."

"Hershel's right," Glenn said softly. "Shane…he's always been really protective and everything, but ever since you and Jamie joined the group he's been just plain violent."

"He wants things to be the way they were; when his word was law," Andrea agreed. "With you here, people follow you before they follow him. And Jamie doesn't give a damn about what he says; she'd go against his words just for the fun of it and Shane  _hates_  her because of that."

"I think…it's time Shane left," Glenn said in a meek, quiet voice.

"Both Shane and Randal know where we are; if we just drop them off somewhere then they could come back with a serious revenge complex," Andrea added on, glancing between Glenn and Rick. Dale remained completely silent through the entire conversation, his eyes on the floor as she listened to the words of those around him, absorbing everything bit by bit.

"Let's not concern ourselves with this right now," Maggie said suddenly, quickly, as she stopped washing the vegetables. "Just get through tonight, and then tomorrow we can worry about those two. Jamie doesn't need to have to listen to this for the evening."

Not a moment later, the front door opened and Jamie and Daryl stepped inside. Jamie was walking on her own, but was still cautious about her knee. Her hair was pulled back into a horse-tail once more, brushed through until all of the tangles were gone and the strands hung in clumped wet locks. She had retrieved her rifle, not surprisingly, and Daryl's crossbow was slung over his shoulder with fresh arrows clipped in place.

"Dinner's almost ready," Dale finally said, saying the first thing since Rick had entered the kitchen. "Who wants to help me set the table?"

"Glenn's on plates, I'll get glasses for everyone. Jamie, mind putting out the napkins?" Andrea asked, moving toward the cabinet that had the glasses. Jamie nodded and turned to where she remembered the drawer with all of the napkins and tablecloths were stored. Daryl and Rick began to help bring out the food while Dale went to get everyone else for the meal. Beth was still assigned to bed rest, so Maggie began making a plate for her younger sister.

"You guys don't have to act like you're walking on eggshells around me," Jamie said a couple of minutes later, causing everyone to either pause or flinch briefly. "I know you're trying to help, but I don't want you all to act as though I'm going to snap at any moment." Tucking her hands into the pockets of her jeans, she leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen and looked to Rick. "Has anything been decided?"

"Not tonight," he said immediately, looking over her shoulder to where Daryl was standing with a darkening expression. "We're going to make the decisions tomorrow, when everyone's thinking clearly. We'll have the night to think things over."

Jamie nodded her head, not in the least upset over the conversation. At least, that was how she appeared. Rick knew that she was only trying to show a strong front so that she wasn't seen as weak, but he didn't call her out. Daryl would be there for her, he knew, so Jamie was in good hands. Lori walked into the room silently with Carl, the small boy none the wiser aside from that Shane had done something very bad and wouldn't be joining them for dinner. Jamie gladly accepted a glass of wine from Hershel, taking a sip of the expensive tasting Merlot.

"Careful, Angel, you haven't had that stuff in a while," Daryl forewarned as he watched her continue to steadily sip the cool drink. She childishly pulled away from the glass and stuck her tongue out at him, causing Glenn to snort as he held back a laugh before he focused on his own food.

Lori ate silently, not saying a word and refusing to look toward where Jamie and Daryl were. Rick was sitting on Jamie's other side, on the opposite end of the table as Lori, with Carl beside his father. She felt blocked out completely where she was sitting, everyone avoiding looking in her direction.

"I want to thank Jamie and Daryl again," Hershel said as he lifted his own wine glass toward the two, "For bringing us such a wonderful meal at the risk of their own lives." Daryl blushed red and ducked his head down while Jamie smiled and lifted her own glass to tap his gently. She nudged Daryl, who lifted his water glass but didn't move to do anything else before he took a deep gulp.

"I still don't know how you guys carried back that deer," Glenn said in awe as he looked between them. "I mean, on top of being injured and sleep deprived, that thing was heavy!" Jamie chuckled as she rubbed the shoulder of the arm that had carried the deer most of the way.

"Didn't come away without sore muscles."

"She wanted me to carry the damn think back myself," Daryl threw in, getting a swat on the leg from the woman to his left, only laughing in response. "Ya know it's true." Jamie didn't answer but instead took another sip of her wine, causing the others around the table to laugh or grin at her obvious surrender in the argument. It wouldn't surprise them if she had jokingly asked for him to do all the work.

Jamie was forbidden from helping with dishes because of the work that would put on her knee, so she sat at the table for once, a glass of water in her hand to wash away the effects of the wine. Daryl had actually taken a couple of the heavier dishes into the kitchen, something that was surprising when he had never done that before. With the combination of fatigue and wine, she was soon yawning broadly and falling asleep in her chair. Daryl smiled softly, unknowing that he was doing so, and moved over to whisper in her ear.

"Time to get you to bed, Angel," he said, the prickle of his facial hair causing Jamie to laugh tiredly and turn her face away. "We'll see you all in the morning," Daryl said, only looking to Rick as the older man nodded his head, before he carefully helped Jamie to stand up and began walking toward the front door, interrupted by another of Jamie's enormous yawn that nearly popped her jaw. Daryl only found it tremendously amusing, even though he was trying to stop his own yawns, as he shoulders his crossbow while opening the front door.

"I might just fall asleep on the walk over," Jamie jested, leaning against Daryl. This time, he didn't laugh, but the smile was still present on his face. Walking along through the fields toward their tent, Jamie reached down to lace her fingers through his, feeling the warmth of his palm press against hers. Daryl leaned to the side and pressed a kiss against her temple, the hairs of his goatee making her smile at the familiarity. In the beginning, she wasn't sure how she would feel about the facial hair, but it had become something that helped assure her that it was truly Daryl. In the past, when he would use the spare key to get into her apartment, he would kiss her shoulder or her neck or cheek as he slipped into her bed and she would always know that it was Daryl even in a dazed, sleepy state. Now, those kisses brought back the good memories and it made her so happy that she  _could_  still feel happy.


	40. Personal Death Squad

Jamie sat on the roof of one of the cars as she looked over to where Daryl was in the shed with Rick, the two men 'talking' with Shane and Randal. She wasn't fooled; it was a no brainer that there was going to be violence involved. Andrea wandered over to where Jamie was sitting, the two women silent as they looked off toward the shed.

"You were pretty close to Shane, weren't you?" Jamie asked without looking over to Andrea. The other blonde ducked her head for a moment, kicking at the dirt beneath her feet as she tried to think of how to answer the question. "You don't have to think so hard, it's a yes or no answer."

"Yes," Andrea replied. "A couple of times, Shane wanted to leave this group behind after you and Rick showed up. He didn't like that Rick was taking all his power away, I guess. After Amy died…I really wanted to go with him. I was angry at Dale, I was angry at myself. Shane was a way out of all of it. Now…I'm not really sure what I feel for him." Jamie nodded her head in understanding, her fingers playing with the hilt of the hunting knife in her lap.

"What do you think is going to happen?"

"I think Shane's going to be shown leniency," she scoffed, "And Randal's going to die. He's technically the bigger threat with a group that won't hesitate to kill. Shane was once a part of this fucked up team, so they won't want to kill him." Jamie almost laughed out loud; don't want to kill him. As she thought it over, she actually did laugh out loud, finally drawing Andrea's eyes up to her with confusion written all over her face. "What?"

"You're wrong," Jamie said easily. "Daryl I know for a fact would not hesitate to kill Shane if it was up to him. He'd torture Shane until he was begging for death. And Rick…Rick has a hatred for Shane that I don't think even he knows about. His once best friend convinced his wife he was dead, screwed her, tried to take up his place as father for Carl and claims that Lori's baby is his. Shane's the kind of person you don't want around in a Zombie Apocalypse; he'd probably shoot you in the foot so he could get away."

Andrea was looking at Jamie with wide eyes, the older staring off with a dark gaze. She still looked very tired after the previous two days, but she wasn't falling over herself every time she needed to stand on her own. Andrea, though she hated to admit it, admired Jamie's connection with the men of the group. She could easily get along with a group of guys, but at the same time she had a motherly/sisterly feel about her that drew people to feel comfortable when she was nearby.

Inside the shed, Daryl didn't even feel the pain that he knew he should with every collision of his fist with Randal's face, the younger falling to the ground hard as he cried out in pain. Rick stood back near where Shane was chained to the other wall. Randal was using his police cuffs, so they had to improvise with the older man.

"I told you," he whimpered, spitting out blood onto the ground. The red ran down his face, his lips and nose bleeding from the repetitive beatings that he had undergone.

"You ain't told me shit!" Daryl yelled, taking a harsh hold of the front of Randal's shirt to hoist him up before slamming his back against the hard wooden boards behind him. Rick watched with a calm demeanour, knowing that they needed to get all the information they could on the threat before making any decisions.

"I hardly knew those guys!" Randal yelled back, heaving for air as he looked up to Daryl with one good eye, the other beginning to swell shut. "I met them on the road," he continued, looking over to Rick as though he hoped he would save him again. No such luck, however, as Rick simply stared straight at him without moving. Shane was surprisingly silent as he slouched against the wall, glaring at the floorboards.

"How many are in the group?" Rick finally asked, both he and Daryl watching him as they waited for an answer. Randal didn't answer as he continued to breath heavily, looking anywhere but them as he appeared to think it over. He looked like he was about to say that he didn't know, but Daryl pulled the hunting from its sheath attached to his belt.

"No, no, no, no," Randal quickly chanted at seeing the knife, fidgeting against the restraints that held him in place. "Come on, man," he begged desperately, crying out and flinching when he saw Daryl raise the knife and bring it down toward his leg. Instead of hitting him, though, he missed by a mere inch, causing Randal to begin trembling.

"How many?" Daryl demanded, his voice rising to a new level.

"Thirty!" Randal yelled out, desperate to save himself. "Thirty! Thirty guys!"

"Where?" Daryl growled, looking like a cage animal on the hunt for blood. Randal hadn't quite caught on to what happens when he takes a long time to answer, and Daryl reminded him by ripping off the bandage over his leg, not only painful because of the tape being torn from his skin up the pain of the injury being aggravated. Rick looked toward Shane, wondering if there was going to be any reaction from him toward what Daryl was doing.

"I don't know it, I swear!" Daryl lowered the knife down to the injury, putting the end to the cut as he began to dig into it. "We were never in a place for more than a night!" Between a mixture of physical torture and disgusting words, Daryl was slowly cracking through the barrier of ignorance that Randal was trying to convey.

"You seem right at home right now, huh, Daryl?" Shane taunted at last, getting Rick's attention but not even phasing Daryl. He knew that he was going to have his chance at Shane, he just needed to wait for the right opportunity. Rick kicked the other man harshly in the ankle, silencing him and getting a glare from his once best friend. Shane's hatred for the other man was easily seen through his dark eyes, looking into Rick's light ones.

Randal's submission on the other side of the small shed drew Rick's attention once more, Shane glaring at the back of his head a moment longer. "They have weapons," he finally admitted, Daryl keeping his hunting knife threateningly close to Randal's knee, "Heavy stuff. B-but but I didn't do anything!" he gasped out, trying to squirm away from Daryl's grip and the threat he had on his injury.

"Took a shot at my boys? My girl? Try to take this farm?" He was beginning to flush with anger and he leaned close while his voice rose in volume. "You just went along for the ride and you try to tell me you were innocent?" The thought of Randal taking even one shot at Jamie while she was locked inside a bar, injured, made his blood boil and he wished that he could do more than just lay in on the boy's face with his fists or cut up his injury.

"Yes!" Randal yelled back, his chest heaving. "T-t-these people took me in," he said in lower, less desperate voice. "Not just guys! A-a whole group of 'em; men and women, uh-kids, too! Just like you people." Daryl finally pulled his knife away as the boy began spitting out anything that he could that he thought would keep him safe. "I thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know?"

Daryl began to pace slightly, just from one side of Randal's outstretched legs to the other, and Rick would be damned if he didn't say that he looked like a caged animal. Daryl was out for blood and he couldn't even imagine what he wanted to do to Shane; Randal wasn't the one that had accosted her while she was naked in the shower and he was barely even recognizable.

"But we'd go out and scavenge with just the men," Randal continued, swallowing to try and alleviated the sudden tightness in his throat. "One night, we found this little camp sight. This man and his two daughters, teenagers—real young…real cute." Rick looked over when Daryl stopped pacing, his body directed toward the door and preventing any of them from seeing the look on his face. His shoulders were still locked up and tense and Rick knew that he was feeling the same disgust and hate curling in his stomach that he was. It didn't take a genius to know the direction of the story and neither man wanted to hear any more details. But Randal continued, "The dad had to watch while the guys-they….and they didn't even kill him after-words! They…they just made him watch."

Rick glared down at the man as he listened to him. It wasn't the story of a disgusted, frightened young man. This was the story of a man that had enjoyed and was revelling in the memory. His eyes were distant as he spoke, thinking back to everything that he had seen, and all that he may have done that night. Looking over to Daryl, his hand was tight around the hilt of his knife and he craved to drive it into Randal's heart.

Shane was sneering down at the floorboards, listening to the scared little boy speak. And when he tried to deny having any part in the story Daryl lunged forward and planted a kick to his injured knee, sending Randal onto his side as he gasped and cried out in pain. He couldn't stop the chuckle that bubbled up in his throat and Rick couldn't stop Daryl from turning on the ex-cop, knife raised.

"Daryl-"

"Go ahead, Dixon! Show that fiancé of yours out there the real monster that you are," Shane leered with a taunting smile full of blood on his face. Daryl used his other hand, free of the knife, to drive a punch straight into Shane's face. He just laughed, spitting blood. "Fuckin' pathetic. Amazing that she's stayed with you as long as she has, what with the way that she looks. Yea, she could do-"

Instead of Daryl, Rick was the one to interrupt Shane's crude words as he brought the heel of his boot down on the man's shin, not with the force to break the bone but hard enough that it sent painful vibrations through his leg and torso. Daryl looked over to the other man, surprised that he had actually done something more than just a slight kick to shut him up. "What's really pathetic is treating people the way you do, Shane. You think this is going to impress anyone? Make you look all big and strong in front of everyone? The protector that they're waiting for?" Rick hissed into the other man's face, crouching down to even out their height. "You're the kind of guy that we used to warn teenage girls about, Shane. The one that thinks he's got the rights to anything he wants."

Shane, lights tightened into a line, glared up at him. "'Cause you're a fuckin' saint, right, Rick? Can't tell me you haven't seen those two and thought the same."

Rick got right into Shane's face with a dark look in his eyes. "No, I haven't thought the same. I can look you in the eye and tell you honestly that Jamie and Daryl are perfect together. I can tell you that I was happy for them when they met up again. I can look you in the eye and admit that I can even be jealous of the way they are together." There was a light burning behind Rick's eyes that made Shane lean back, shocked at the sight of it. "And try all you want, you know that you can't break Jamie so easily."

Shane knew too well. His groin was still reminding him not to go near the blonde if he ever got out of the cuffs and shed.

"What were you thinking of accomplishing?" Rick asked after a brief pause. "Did you really think that sneaking in on Jamie and threatening her was going to work in your favour. In what world would that have been a good idea?"

"I was trying to protect your wife," Shane yelled back at last.

"Jamie'd sooner protect Lori than you would," Daryl growled from the background, still looking as tense and pissed off as he had when punching him in the face. "I bet you'd turn a blind eye the second your ass was on the line."

"'Cause you'd go out of your way, right Daryl?" Shane mocked, meeting Daryl's dark stare.

"If I remember correctly," Rick interrupted, "it was Daryl that warned us of the walkers after the CDC blew up and saved your life." Looking back at Daryl, Rick pretended to actually have to think it over when it was glaringly obvious. Daryl had been the one slamming on the horn of his truck when Shane was out in the open, warning of a herd of walkers on their way. It was the same day that he had outsmarted Andrea and left the blonde pissed and annoyed at having the supposedly stupid and slow redneck make her look like a fool.

"Biggest mistake of my fuckin' life," Daryl snarled, looking directly into Shane's dark eyes. Turning on heel, he slammed the door of the shed open and strode out into the bright sunlight, Rick hesitating a moment more before following after, leaving Shane and Randal alone.

"What are we gunna do?" Rick asked in a weary voice, glancing over their shoulder as they made their way back toward where the others were waiting. Jamie was sitting on top of the van's hood, looking over in their direction with an unreadable expression. The others seemed to be nervously flitting around, trying to find something to busy themselves with.

"Can't let Randal go back to his group," Daryl answered immediately, "Not with the chance that he'll lead them here."

"You want to kill him."

"I want to kill Shane. We need to kill Randal," Daryl correctly, making sure his knife was in the sheath on his hip properly. "Either we all leave and let them go, never coming back here, or we kill them and never worry about the threat again." He knew that Rick was struggling immensely with the decision of what to do, especially since one of the men had once been his best friend. He was glad that he didn't have to make the choice, but at the same time he wouldn't hesitate to kill both of them. In his eyes, they weren't innocent in any light and didn't deserve an ounce of trust that could be given.

Jamie slid toward the edge of the car roof as Daryl veered away from Rick to go to her, leaving the other man to explain what they had found out. He let his crossbow slide from his shoulder when he was close to the can and lean it against the metal, his freed hands seeking out Jamie's hips as she leaned against him.

"You're knuckles are busted," she mumbled against his neck as she wrapped her arms around him in greeting. It only took a glance to see the blood that had bloomed on his fists, both from his own cuts and from the men's, she was sure. Which one he had beat more, she didn't know but she had a dark wish inside of her gut that it had been Shane.

Daryl pressed a kiss against her temple before leaning his head against hers. "I'll be fine," he assured softly, pressing his thumbs into soothing circles on her hips. Against her will, she relaxed and smiled. It was something that he had begun before they were even dating, though it was considered to be much more intimate now. "Rick still doesn't want to kill them, but he knows that we have to. That, or everyone pack up and take off."

"Poor guy," Jamie breathed out, her eyes flickering toward where Rick looked tense and uneasy with the others of the group. "How'd things go?"

"I know that if I don't kill Shane, Rick's getting there," Daryl answered immediately, making Jamie's lips twitch as they fought between a smile and a frown. Though she wished Shane was gone and she knew that Rick had to show Shane who was the true leader or the group, she didn't want a man to have to kill his once best friend. There would always be a bound between them and even in the final moments of life between either of them, it would hold true. Throughout everything that had happened, she knew that Rick could still, in time or in some phenomenal way, forgive the other ex-cop for his transgressions. Daryl, on the other hand, would sooner go homicidal rather than forgiving. "Randal's completely fucked up, and we both know it."

"I don't want to know," Jamie mumbled against his neck, turning her face into the warmth of his skin to calm herself down and allow his presence alone to bring her the comfort that she needed. "I love you," she whispered, her fingers gliding along the material that made up the feathers on the back of his leather vest.

Pulling her all the more tight against his chest, Daryl wished that he could take all of the fear that he knew she was feeling right out of her. However, he knew it was impossible and instead simply settled on doing all he could to bring her comfort, even if that meant killing the one that she feared. He would do anything that he could for her, and she knew it to. If she asked him to kill both of the men in the shed, he would turn back around in a heartbeat and put an arrow between each of their eyes. "I love you, too, Jamie."

Somehow, the use of her name instead of 'Angel' or 'Babe' made the words all that more important and she almost sobbed in happiness as she clutched him with all her strength, nearly bringing pain as her knees tightened on either side of his waist.

Only pulling back after she had gotten her fill of his warm body, she son caught his lips in a long, slow kiss.

"Don't get carried away, now," T-Dog said as he was walking passed the van, getting the middle finger from Daryl as his other hand kept her head in place when she moved to pull away. A smile pulled at her lips from the action and she quickly lifted her hands to stroke along his jaw.

They still pulled away a moment later as T-Dog continued on, laughing quietly to himself as he tried his best to ignore the two 'love birds'. Jamie smiled against Daryl's lips as she placed one final, chaste kiss against them before pulling back entirely. "We can't just stand here all day," she mumbled, still reluctant to leave his arms.

"You ain't standing," Daryl countered as he playfully tugged on the ends of her hair. A slightly scornful look was his answer and he chuckled deeply as he pulled away and allowed her to drop down off the truck and stand on her own two feet.

Leaning in close to Daryl so that he could wrap his arm around her shoulders, Jamie let out a sigh and walked with him very quietly back toward the campsite where everyone else was beginning to disperse. Troubled looks lingered on everyone's faces and Jamie only wished that she could just take away everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. And yet, she also felt better knowing that Shane's behaviour had been exposed and she didn't need to worry about him anymore.

They both paused when they saw Rick being followed by Dale, the older man adamantly trying to convince Rick that death wasn't the answer. Looking around, even Carl was greatly subdued from the behaviour of the people around him.

"Come on," Jamie encourage, "Let's get your hands fixed up."

"Already on it," Carol said as she moved to from behind the two, drawing attentions toward her. "Here, I went out and got these for you." In her hands she was carrying a roll of gauze and a tiny bottle of disinfectant. Handing them to Jamie, she hesitated before the both of them for a moment. "Did you get what you were looking for?" she asked, looking to Daryl. "Approval? Thanks?"

"Carol?" Jamie asked quietly, but it only made the older woman speak faster.

"You couldn't hit me so you beat up a kid, is that who you are now-"

Daryl fluidly interrupted, his voice thick with restrained emotions, "Ain't no kid. He'd do a lot worse than hittin' you if you gave him a chance." Jamie closed her eyes, wanting to keep the thought from her mind. The things that he must have found out while inside that shed were things that she really wished would stay inside the shed.

"That's not what this is about and you know it," Carol snapped. "You can go ahead and take back all of the nice and smart things that you've said, you can try to pretend that you don't care, but we all know it's not true. Some of the things that you've done for these people could put even the nicest person to shame; so don't just go off to tend to your bloody fists and act like you don't care."

Without another word, Carol turned on heel and walked away. Jamie blinked in surprise behind her, unsure of how to take the angered woman's words.

"She's right, you know. In some ways you have done things for this group better than even Rick or Dale. You've put your life on the line and yet you're always in the background." Taking his arm in her hand gently, Jamie guided him over to sit on one of the logs that had fallen along the fencing to a field, more than likely to prevent anything from digging under the fence in that place any more.

"I don't care what the others think of me, Jay," Daryl muttered as he allowed her to sit him down, taking the place beside him and laying the gauze out on her lap while she used the cloth it was wrapped in to gently wipe at his bloody hands.

"I'm not saying that you have to care; the people in this camp need to learn to respect other people. Including someone that's usually out of their social circle."

Daryl made a low grumbling noise that sounded more like a growl than anything else, soon accompanied by a distant rumble of thunder that spoke of an oncoming storm. Her hands were soft and gentle, not yet rough with callouses from the guns and manual labour. Daryl felt his cheeks flame with a blush when she bent down and pressed a feather light kiss against the torn skin, cleaned of blood.

"Don't do that, I'm not a kid," he mumbled out, looking away as she smiled and continued her work.

"No, you're my big strong man," she assured, moving to begin wrapping the ointment coated gauze onto his knuckles. They wouldn't last long, she knew that, but she hoped that it was enough that he wore it long enough for them to scab so they didn't get infected.

"Did it hurt?" Jamie looked back over her shoulder at the question, seeing Carl standing there unsurely. "When you punched the guy?" Daryl knew that he was talking about Randal, and felt a sick satisfaction that he had saved his strongest throw for Shane.

"I've been hurt worse," he finally answered, looking down to where Jamie was tying off the gauze and soon reaching for his other hand. "You too, buddy," he continued, his voice turning gentle after the tone he had taken with Carol. Carl smiled, nodding his head. Jamie understood that he more than likely felt proud that he had been injured, now that he had recovered, and was 'one of the men'.

After a brief pause, Carl motioned to where Daryl had lent his crossbow against the log, asking, "Can you teach me how to shoot that?"

"Your arm ain't long enough," Daryl answered immediately, also knowing that Carl wouldn't be strong enough to load the weapon. It had taken Daryl years of practice to finally get the hang of the strong metal cord and the process of pulling it back to fire the arrow.

"Yes it is," Carl argued, making Jamie want to cringe. One of the reasons that she didn't really want children is the arguing that they did. Even when they knew that they were wrong, they continued to fight just because they really wanted something and would press and press until they got it.

"You just barely got permission for a gun," Jamie said as she finished cleaning the blood from Daryl's other hand with the clean side of the cloth. "Learn to excel in that, first." Looking over her shoulder again, Carl still seemed disappointed but at her words turned and left as though he was ready to go and practice his aim.

"You're too soft," Daryl teased before hissing in pain when Jamie tied the gauze too tight on his knuckles.

"Oops."


	41. Stormy Paradise

Disoriented, Jamie groaned softly as she tried to get her brain caught up to her waking body. There was an ache in her back from lying down on something hard and her head was slowly beginning to pound with a fierce ache that she knew was only going to get worse. Opening her eyes, confusion cluttered her brain when she saw that she was in the forest and nighttime hung in the sky above her. She was lying on her back on the leaves of the forest floor near a grouping of trees. It was absolutely freezing, with a gentle breeze only making it worse.

What had woken her?

Lifting her head, she looked down toward her feet. Her head swam for a moment from the movement before everything focused once more, the darkness obscuring her view. She was still able to see, however, that there was a walker gnawing on her boot covered ankle. Letting loose a scream before she could stop herself, Jamie kicked upward with her other foot and dislodged the walker from her person before he could move up and actually bite skin.

The walker rolled to the side harshly, rasping and growling. Trying to pull herself up while keeping her eyes trained on the walker, Jamie realized very quickly that her wrists were tied together and she wasn't able to move much. Rolling herself onto her knees, she moved toward where a rope was wrapped around the tree before tying her wrists. The walker groaned hungrily behind her and Jamie quickly looked over her shoulder before kicking out with her good leg and slamming her heel into the walker's nose.

"Daryl!" she screamed, pulling at the thick, itching rope that bound her hands. Reaching down to her side was easy, but her knife was missing from the sheath and she didn't have any other weapons on her person. As the walker charged for another attack, Jamie rolled onto her back to prepare for a second kick into its face before a gunshot cracked through the air and the walker dropped to the side, blood spraying out the side of its head where the bullet ripped free from the soft bone.

Gasping in shock and shaking in fear, Jamie allowed herself to fall back against the tree that she was bound to and looked over to where the gunshot must have come from.

"Jamie?"

"Rick!" Jamie called, tugging at the ropes as she strained to see around the cluster of trees to where his voice was coming from through the dark. Moments later, the beam of a flashlight moved along the ground a couple of feet away, coming around the trees. The light hit her eyes and blinded her for a moment before it was lowered and Rick was there, wrapping her in a hug. He smelled of wood, sweat and something burnt, like he had been standing before a campfire and the wind had directed the smoke right at him.

"We were so worried," Rick gasped into her shoulder before he pulled back and shined the light on her face once more, this time directed at her forehead where the pulsing headache had begun when she woke up.

"What happened? Where's Daryl? Why am I in the woods?" she asked dazedly, closing her eyes against the burning of the flashlight against her eyes.

"Rick?" Daryl's voice roared, rushing through the trees at breakneck speed with Glenn stumbling his way behind.

"We're over here!" Rick called, his hands holding Jamie's face steady as he checked her pupils for any sign that she had a concussion. Sadly, it looked like she more than likely had a mild one from the crack to the head that she had surely suffered. Daryl appeared less than a second later, dropping down beside them and taking's Jamie's face gently in his hands as Rick stepped away.

"You alright babe?"

"I don't know,  _what happened?"_

**~Six Hours Prior~**

Everyone was crowded together in the living room of the Greene family home, only missing Andrea, Daryl and Jamie. The rest of the group sat in silence as they waited for the three remaining members so that they could make the final decision on what happened with the two men locked away in the shed. Dale looked over everyone present, trying to gauge what they might say. It was impossible to tell, however, from the blank stares and emotionless faces that everyone was wearing.

The entire room jumped when Andrea bolted in from the side door, panting and out of breath. Her eyes were wide and her skin seemed to have lost any colour. Immediately they entire room was on edge, nerves frayed.

"They're gone!" she gasped out, leaning on the hold she kept on the door handle. "Shane and Randal are gone!"

"What?" T-Dog demanded before anyone else, rising to his feet. Before anyone else could react, Daryl threw himself into the room through the front door, looking pissed beyond belief with murder in his eyes.

"Jamie's gone," he declared, huffing like an enraged bull.

"Shane must have taken her," Glenn mumbled out, terrified as he looked between the huffing Daryl and a dark and glaring Rick. No one had seen Jamie for a while, not since she and Daryl had gone back up to where their own camp was located. Jamie said that she needed to sleep for a while after Hershel had given her a mild painkiller for her knee, which had been throbbing slightly after walking around that morning.

"Where was she last?" Rick asked Daryl as he pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against, pulling his gun out and checking to make sure that it was loaded with new rounds.

"She was sleeping in the tent. I went to get more wood to make arrows and when I came back the tent was open and she wasn't inside," Daryl explained as he watched Rick with a close eye. "Jamie wouldn't just wander away like that; she was out like a fuckin' rock anyway. No way she'd get up and walk away in the five minutes I was out of the campsite."

"If Shane's been out for a while, he could have been waiting for you to leave before going in for Jamie," Glenn said, looking over to Daryl. The words only seemed to upset him more and he had a look similar to the one Rick had seen when they broke into the bathroom and found Shane locked in with a petrified Jamie. He wanted to tear Shane apart.

"That's a big risk for one person," T-Dog said quietly from his place on the other side of the room.

Rick glanced up at Daryl, seeing that the cords of his neck were taut and his muscles seemed to bulge through the sleeves of his shirt, one of the few that he owned. "Jamie's the one that revealed him," Rick began, "to him, everything's her fault." A pregnant silence hung in the air, thick enough to choke. Lori felt as though the air itself was being sucked from the room, leaving her in a fit of gasps as she placed a hand over her mouth. Inadvertently, this all came back to her.

"Even with drugs in her system, Shane wouldn't be able to take on Jamie very easily," Rick began, turning to Daryl in pure concentration.

"Fuck no," Daryl agreed, pride in his tone. "Bastard would have had to knock her out somehow. I was only about ten to twenty yards away and didn't hear a thing. If she could have screamed, she would."

"So he's carrying dead weight," Glenn said with a start, looking hopeful. The choice of his words, however, made Daryl and Rick both tense back up and look toward him slowly. Glenn flinched and quickly corrected himself, "Sorry, wrong thing to say. But if she's unconscious, he'll have to carry her. He's slowed down."

"Let's stop wasting time," Andrea interrupted before they could continue. "The longer we stay here, the further away they get. Where do you think Shane would try to go? And dragging Randal and Jamie along with him? Where does he get any kind of benefit?"

"Randal's group," Lori gasped out, looking up at the rest of them with large brown eyes. Doe eyes. "If he brought Randal along, he might have Randal take him and Jamie back to where his group is-"

" _Fuck!"_ Daryl roared as he threw his fist into the frame of the door, tearing open the scabs from the beating that he had given to Randal and Shane early that morning. Lori and Andrea jumped as the door wood cracked up the center with the force of his punch. It would have hurt like a bitch, but he didn't feel it at the time. There was too much rage and adrenaline in his blood. All he could see was red, and it wasn't the blood that now stained the white painted frame.

Rick lurched forward and caught Daryl's shirt in his hands, forcing him to a harsh stop. It reminded Glenn and T-Dog of their time in the department store while looking for Merle, the younger Dixon having to be ordered rather harshly by Rick to stay quiet. "You have to calm down," he snapped out. "We need to keep calm to find her, understand?"

Daryl looked ready to lash out at him, his teeth gritted and his hands curled into fists. But he forced his body to relax before everyone's eyes and he nodded his head silently. His jaw was still set and he didn't unclench his fists. Rick nodded in acknowledgement and released Daryl's worn shirt. Without another word, both men marched out the door, the wood slamming against the wall behind them.

Jamie was the only person that could rile Daryl up into such a violent rage; not even Merle's disappearance could anger him to such an extent. Aside from Jamie, Rick was the only person that could calm Daryl down to a more sociable level.

"Glenn, you come with Daryl and I," Rick was ordering. "T-Dog and Andrea, you cover North to East, we've got South to West." Everyone began a buzz of movement, rushing away from their seats so as to begin preparing to leave. "Glenn, go and get my cuffs from the shed." Tossing the keys to the younger man, Rick and Daryl headed to the RV to get more ammo before they left.

"I want her back before dark," Daryl growled as he slipped a handgun into the back of his belt.

Rick caught Daryl arm when he moved to leave the RV, cutting him off before he could take more than a step toward the door. "We'll get her back, Daryl." Blue met blue as Daryl looked into the older man's eyes, seeing the honesty and determination in them. It reminded him of Jamie, and her determination to survive. Reaching around, Daryl gripped Rick's hand that remained on his own arm, keeping his eyes locked with the other man's.

"I need to know that if you have to, you can kill him," Daryl questioned softly, his voice calm but his eyes deadly.

Rick's adam's-apple bobbed as he swallowed, before nodding his head. "I won't hesitate."

They both stepped out of the RV and headed for the South end of the property, Glenn already moving from the direction of the house to cut them off. Rick's cuffs, still covered in blood, were in his hands. Andrea and T-Dog, equipped with their guns, were heading off toward the North end of the farm. The remainder of the group stood on the porch, watching, with dampened, worried looks in their eyes. It wasn't only the fact that Jamie was missing, but there was also the fact that Shane and Randal were sure to either die, or get away. And with the risk of them leading Randal's group back to the farm, no one wanted to think of the fact that they would have to leave.

With the night surrounding them, Jamie sat still as Daryl cut her wrists free, the ruined rope falling to a useless heap on the ground. Rick had gone back to checking out her forehead, making sure that there wasn't anything else wrong. Jamie was already getting tired off the two fussing males, but held still so that they would get through with the worrying and leave her alone. The relief of Rick saving her life and Daryl just being  _there_ was enough for her, so she would endure.

"Are you bit anywhere?" Rick asked seriously a moment later, the question that needed to be asked but no one ever wanting to be the one doing the asking.

"Nothing else hurts, so I don't think so," she answered. "I woke up to the walker gnawing on my ankle, but it didn't get above the boot so I'm good there."

"What happened to you? Do you remember?" Daryl asked softly, soothing her hair with one hand. She wondered briefly what she must have looked like. Getting kidnapped, dragged all over the woods, tied to a tree and left on the dirty, leaf covered ground.

"I remember waking up in the tent and wondering why it was so quiet. I can usually hear you moving around outside of it when you're not in the tent. I got up to go and look for you—then nothing. I guess Shane decided to use my head for baseball practice," she grumbled, wincing when Rick pulled some hair away from the wound. The strands had gotten stuck in the dried blood and tugging them away had also pulled at the wound.

"You've been out the whole time?" Glenn asked, concerned. That would have had to have been one hard knock to the head if she had been out for so long.

"You've got a concussion, but I don't see anything else wrong. We'll have Hershel patch you up when we get back." Patting her on the back, they shared a brief, tired smile before Daryl was carefully helping her to her feet. Leaning heavily against him, she tried to remain still as the sky and ground seemed determined to switch places. Daryl's arm was immediately wrapped around her waist, keeping her still. She teetered dangerously, to the point that Rick reached out and placed a gentle but steadying hand on her shoulder.

"I think you should carry her," he directed to Daryl, even though his concerned eyes remained on Jamie. With the light of the flashlight, he was able to see that her face was dangerously pale and she was trembling. Daryl could feel her body shaking against his and nodded in agreement. Jamie made a faint grunting noise as Daryl swept her into his arms, making sure that the movement was slow so as not to make her sick from the motions.

"Andrea and T-Dog are probably already on their way back," Glenn said quickly, moving to pick up Daryl's crossbow, since the older man clearly had no way of carrying the weapon properly. Rushing after them, Glenn barely made two feet before something caught his eye. "Uh, guys? You might want to see this!"

Halting their stride, Rick and Daryl turned together to see that Glenn was looking down at the walker Rick had shot. Moving over to stand over the fallen dead both had to blink and look again at the sight of a very pale, dead Randal.

"It looks like his neck was broken," Glenn said, using the toe of his boot to nudge the dead man's head to the side, the bone prodding against the skin of his neck and causing the Asian to flinch back. Rick was looking over the rest of him with his flashlight, though, and couldn't see any bites. "Could he have really died  _and_  turned so quickly after being bitten? That would be really fast; only a couple of hours, twelve at the most."

"I don't think he was bitten," Rick mumbled, suddenly looking paler. "Come on, we should get back to the house before anyone starts to worry. Jamie needs to get her head fixed up."

"Is that a crack at my sanity?" Jamie mumbled into Daryl's shoulder, getting a chuckle from Daryl. He shook her suddenly, startling her and causing her to clutch to his shirt at the thought that he might be about to drop her. "What? What was that?" she asked drowsily, blinking owlishly up at her fiancé.

"Don't sleep," he answered, adjusting his hold on her again. "Keep talking as we walk; if you fall asleep with a concussion you might not wake up."

"Daryl's right," Rick said, getting a sour look from Jamie.

Jamie grunted unhappily, but she knew that they were right and so she quieted her complaints. "Fine. So did you end up making any decisions before you found out we were gone?" Jamie asked softly, keeping her voice low in a forest that could hold a walker anywhere. This was what she hated about nighttime; someone could sneak up on you at any time and you wouldn't know it until it was too late. The night out while hunting had been pure torture and excruciatingly tense.

"No, we were waiting for everyone to show up before we started discussing. That, of course, didn't happen." Glenn was the first to answer, having been in the room at the time. Jamie blinked slowly, looking over Daryl's shoulder to the darkness that they were leaving behind. Her head pulsed painfully, helping somewhat to keep her awake.

"Guess there's no point now," she mumbled, turning her eyes upward instead so that she was looking up at the sky. It was darkened with clouds, but there was an odd area where they were thin enough that moonlight lit up the thin, misty appearance of them.  _As black as night_ , she thought, understanding the phrase now.

Rick spoke up, breaking the silence by saying, "There's a new debate now. Shane's a danger to everyone and even if we leave, the Greene's are in danger."

"And can Glenn leave Maggie?" Jamie asked tiredly, glancing to the dark haired man in question. Glenn opened and closed his mouth, unsure of what to say. Jamie smiled endearingly at his sudden shyness, leaning her head against Daryl's shoulder once more. She shook her slightly and she made a soft noise of complaint, but made sure that she kept her eyes open so as not to be tempted by the darkness of unconsciousness.

"We'll worry about things come morning," Rick said in reassurance to Glenn, allowing the man a reprieve from choking on his words desperately. Jamie, though only half aware of what was going on around her, smirked faintly at his bashfulness. It reminded her of Daryl when they were dating that first year, trying to be a 'normal' couple. He was unsure of everything that he was doing; even when she kissed him he seemed to shy away in unease of what was happening.

"We'll have to set up watch for the night," Glenn spoke, finally, with a crack in his voice.

So now it was Shane that would keep them awake at night; not a walker, or a rival group. A man that had once been trusted by the group, save a few, was the one they needed to be guarded from. He was a disease killing them from the inside out; not only by attacking them, but turning them against one another because of loyalties.

Soon, Jamie was curled up on one end of the couch in Hershel's living room, wrapped up in a blanket with a cup of what smelled like herbal tea; something that would help her to relax, apparently. Hershel sat before her with a small light that was meant to replace a doctor's penlight, the tiny beam shining directly into her eyes and making her flinch at the stabbing pain that rocketed through her head. Daryl stood behind her like a guard dog, his arms crossed and his face grimly serious.

"It's definitely a concussion, but it's only a mild one," Hershel finally stated after quickly flicking the light across both of her eyes in quick succession. "You'll have to stay up for the night, but it's best to just stay calm and relax as best you can."

"I'll stay up with her," Daryl assured, getting a nod from the elderly man in acceptance. "Any rules I need to worry 'bout?"

"I would recommend just talking; reminisce in memories, tell stories of things that have happened. Just keep her mind occupied and let her rest, but don't let her fall asleep."

Jamie lifted a hand to touch the bandage that had been applied over the gash left behind by whatever it was that Shane had cracked her in the head with. "Times like this, I wish that I actually did like coffee." Her pout caused Andrea, who had been leaning against the wall opposite to where she was sitting, to laugh airily and make Jamie smile again.

Daryl stepped forward and gently soothed a hand against the half of her head that was throbbing more than the other, smoothing down her hair and leaning forward to press a kiss against her hair. She closed her eyes in response, just as she always had when he did the gesture, but had to force her eyes back open when her body seemed to take it as a sign to sleep and she became almost overpoweringly tired.


	42. All is Fair in Love and War

When Rick found Jamie and Daryl the next morning, they had abandoned their place on the couch to take up residence on the front porch. T-Dog had been on watch, but they allowed him to head inside to get some sleep when they decided to get some air. There was no point in them all being out there when there was the chance for one of the three to get some sleep. At first, when he spotted them, he was worried that they had fallen asleep even after hearing Hershel's strict warnings, but when he saw that Daryl seemed to be pointing out to things along the treeline; he realized they were simply staying quiet and personal.

Wrapped up in two thick blankets from the front closet, Jamie was curled into Daryl's side with her good temple resting against his throat as he was speaking in gruff, hushed tones. His arm was wrapped protectively around her back, keeping her in place as well as sharing the warmth that he was able to pass along to her through the physical contact.

Rick smiled as he stepped mostly out of view, not wanting to disturb the couple. At the angle that he was viewing them, he could see that Jamie smiled every once and a while, or would laugh silently with shaking shoulders. Daryl would turn to face her whenever she laughed, pressing his lips to her cheek or temple or hair.

"You would have made a great detective," Jamie whispered against the blanket that was wrapped tightly around her form, rolling her eyes up to look at Daryl. She could see her fatigue mirrored on his face, the slowed and almost hanging fashion of his hand as he pointed things out that were along the tree line, invisible to her eyes but spotted by Daryl's sharp interest.

Daryl huffed almost mockingly, getting a tired and weak swat on the leg for his troubles.

"I've been thinking," Daryl started again, his tone more serious than it had been as he was pointing out where he would spot movements in the trees and brush. "Jamie Dixon doesn't sound too bad." Jamie smiled tiredly and leaned more heavily against her lover, wrapping an arm around his waist in return for his own embrace. "Might just catch on."

Smiling more broadly, she reached for Daryl's hand and laced their fingers together as her eyes closed for a moment longer than she should have. "Mrs. Jamie Dixon; the girls back at work would have had a blast when they heard that." Daryl's chest vibrated with his chuckle as he returned the hold she had on his hand, warming the chilled digits.

A sudden knock on the door behind them caused both to turn and glance over their shoulders, Daryl's free hand instinctively moving to the handgun that was tucked in his boot. Rick stood in the doorway, dressed for the day and appeared to already have groomed himself to his regular style. "Hershel's going to be up soon; why don't you both come down for some breakfast before he checks Jamie over?"

"That sounds really nice, actually," Jamie agreed with a tired smile. Rick could see the shadows under her eyes that nearly matched the bruise that had surrounded the gash on her head the night before. Sympathy was reflected in his eyes and she gave him a soft smile at the sight of it before she allowed Daryl to help her to her feet.

"How was your night?" he asked out of courtesy, already knowing that having to stay awake all night because of a concussion would have been awful.

"Far longer than any all-nighter I've had in the past," she answered in a slightly grouchy tone, getting amused glanced from both men that were discretely hidden so that she didn't go off on them. Daryl's own movements were sluggish, however, and Rick frowned in concern. If Shane did attack, he admitted that he would have preferred that Daryl be at top functioning strength. It would have been useless to try and convince him to rest, though, since he wouldn't have left Jamie for anything while she was injured. "How did you sleep?" Jamie finally asked in return as they all made their way toward the kitchen where the women were already beginning to make a simple breakfast as quietly as they could.

"Not very good, to be honest," he admitted, seeing Jamie frown in concern and placing a hand on her shoulder to assure her that he was alright. "You two go sit down, you look ready to fall over."

"Not my fault," Jamie commented, but did as she was told and sat down in her regular seat around the Greene's dining table. Daryl took the chair to her right, running his fingers down her skull soothingly. Her hair was still quite soft from her recent shower, even though she had refused to run a brush through it with the pulsing headache that she had had the night before. Any knots or tangles the teeth encountered would send a lightning bolt of pain through her skull.

"Hey," Andrea greeted softly as she came up to Jamie's other side, placing a hand on her arm in a gesture that told Jamie she was trying to be friends. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck and then wasn't allowed rest," she answered honestly. "I may harm Hershel if he tells me I need to stay awake any longer," she added on after a moment, getting a faint smile from the other blonde.

"Good to have you back, Jamie. We missed you."

Jamie grinned, the look bordering on mischievous, and replied, "Oh, I know. How did you guys function without me?"

Daryl almost snorted beside her, the hand that had once been running through her hair resting on the back of Jamie's chair. Andrea just shook her head in amusement before departing to the kitchen to see what she could do to help. Lori glanced through the doorway every once and a while, looking to where Jamie slouched at the table. Her eyes were sad and irritated all at once, her past emotions of jealousy for the other woman not quite diminished. She did want to talk to the other woman, desperately. Especially after the move that Shane had pulled the day before. She honestly didn't know what the man was thinking.

"I take it that I'm going to be stuck using the buddy system for a while, huh?" Jamie asked Daryl after a minute of silence between the two.

"Hell yea," Daryl answered immediately and Jamie sighed beside him. Of course she was going to be forced to convert back to the babysat little blonde girl until she was well enough; that went for both her knee and her head.

"This is going to feel like forever," she grumbled out, glowering at Daryl's serious stare. The clash of blue and hazel wasn't angry or verging on an argument, but a battle of wills that both knew who was going to win.

"Can I get you guys anything to drink?" Lori asked timidly as she entered the room, wringing a dry cloth in her hands nervously. Jamie looked up in slight surprise at the appearance of the other woman before she glanced back over to Daryl, discreetly motioning for him to leave them alone. He didn't look pleased and the glance that was sent Lori's way warned her silently about what condition he found Jamie in upon returning, before he stood and pressed a kiss to Jamie's crown.

Lori hesitantly moved into the room and took the seat on Jamie's other side, feeling as though she would be invading Daryl's territory if she took his seat. The injured blonde watched every move she made, but didn't say anything as Lori took the seat silently and stared down at her hands like they had the answer to what was happening between them.

"We haven't had a chance to talk this out like adults," Jamie finally started, breaking the silence between them. Lori was beginning to feel like a scolded child under Jamie's eyes, and immediately straightened her back and looked into the other woman's serious gaze. She wasn't about to be seen as weak or submissive to this woman. She is what could be considered as the alpha female of the group and her place is higher than Jamie's.

However, that pride deflated slightly at the visible narrowing of Jamie's eyes as she soon as she spotted the defiance on Lori's face.

"Stop acting like a superior bitch, Lori," she immediately snapped, causing her once friend to flinch back. There was a deepness that had entered Jamie's tone that told of her annoyance and very short patience. "It's not going to help."

"I know," Lori admitted finally, almost sounding as tired as Jamie felt. "And I am  _so_ sorry _._ I-I stepped out of line when I accused you of sleeping with Rick, and it took me a while to realize that. I didn't say it to hurt you, I was just afraid. I guess it has a lot to do with me and Shane; I was looking for a fault in Rick that wasn't there and you got caught in the middle. That wasn't fair of me."

"I don't care about fairness, Lori," Jamie mumbled, blinking tiredly. It probably wasn't the best time to be having this particular conversation, but she didn't know when they'd get the chance again. "And neither does the reality that we're living in. I don't want to be your enemy and I definitely don't want to continue this stupid fight. It might just get one of us killed in the future."

Lori flinched at the hidden message in Jamie's words and nodded her head in agreement.

"I didn't know that our fight would spur Shane on to such lengths-"

"I'm not too surprised, actually," Jamie interrupted and watched Lori's eyes widen. "I know that Daryl would act quite drastically if I showed signs of disliking or feeling threatened by someone, but he and Shane are very different. This new world we're stuck in has changed Shane from whoever you and Rick once knew. He's a loose cannon and very unpredictable. As has been proved."

Lori took a chance and reached for Jamie's hand, the chill from sitting outside still clinging to her skin. "I'm sorry for what's happened between us, Jamie; and for what Shane's done to you. I know that you're probably never going to like me very much but I do want us to be friends again. I want to be able to see you with Carl and not feel jealousy or fear that you're trying to replace me. I want you be friends with Rick and make him happy without being paranoid of losing my husband-"

"Lori," Jamie interrupted as she placed her other hand over hers and Lori's, beginning to feel overwhelmed by the other woman's confessions. She was much too tired for this conversation, but it was too late to turn back now. "Please. I promise you that I will never try to take your place; Carl is your son and you're a wonderful mother, and Rick is your husband and he loves you. I have Daryl and, as kind as Rick is, I would  _never_  give Daryl up for someone else."

Lori laughed tearfully before suddenly reaching forward and pulling the younger woman into a hug, taking her by surprise. "Thank you, Jamie. I want to ask you for forgiveness but I know that I don't deserve it," she whispered against Jamie's shoulder, the softness of the blanket she was wrapped in caressing her cheek.

"I'm not ready to hand out forgiveness, but you do deserve it, Lori. One fault doesn't change everything else that you've done for me and Daryl while we've been here," Jamie soothed, running her hand up and down Lori's back in a rhythmic, soothing pattern. "I think that we both need some time to sit back and think on this. My emotions are way to erratic right now and you're going to make me cry if we keep talking so girlishly, and then Daryl's gunna come in here looking for blood."

Lori laughed along with Jamie as they pulled apart, rubbing under their eyes to alleviate the sensation of oncoming tears.

"I should go and help get breakfast finished before Hershel comes out," Lori said quickly as she rose to her feet, flashing a small smile to Jamie before she pushed in her chair and quickly moved toward the kitchen with the dry towel once more gripped in her hands.

Letting out a long exhale, Jamie deflated in her seat until her forehead was resting on the table. With how tired she as, she probably could have very easily fallen asleep right where she was. The seat that Lori had been in was pulled out again, however, and Jamie rolled her forehead along the table just enough to stare out the corner of her eye and see who had taken her place. Rick was perched on the edge of the chair, almost cautiously.

"It's alright, you don't have to try and delay World War III. We were having a civil conversation and have begun to work things through. However, I have put the discussion on pause until a time that I'm not about to fall asleep sitting up." Rick placed a hand on her back soothingly, much as Jamie had only done moments before with Lori.

"Thank you for being so patient with everything, Jamie," he whispered gratefully. Jamie smiled, knowing that he could see from the angle she had her head placed, before patting him weakly on the knee. "Don't go falling asleep now, or staying up all night will have been pointless."

Childishly, Jamie turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him. He just laughed, however, before giving her a light pat on the back and leaving the table. Jamie blearily thought about how Lori's manners were much better; she had pushed the chair back into place but Rick had left in hazardously pushed out and in the way of people passing by.

It seemed like hours later, but breakfast finally ended and Hershel had taken Jamie aside to check over her pupil responses. Minutes later, she and Daryl had both been sent to the spare room down the hall for a mandatory couple of hours of rest. Jamie didn't even take a moment to consider complaining over being bedridden and instead moved faster than she had all day to get to the bed at the proposition of sleep. The only flaw was that someone would have to come in and wake her up after a couple of hours and go over the questioning; 'who am I? What was your mother's maiden name? What Religion do you follow?' Daryl had chuckled when she scowled at the thought of being woken up but didn't comment.

Carol volunteered to be the designated 'wake-up call' and would be sticking close to the house. Meanwhile, the others would be heading out to see if there were any signs of Shane and to check Randal's body better for any sign of a bite mark. The observation of no bites was startling and worrying, but they had convinced themselves that it must have been a scratch or something of the sort. Andrea was firmly convinced that Randal had been turning while with Shane because of a scratch and the cop broke his neck in self-defence, hoping to deter him because of his lack of weapon—that was argued, however, because he still has Jamie's—Daryl's—knife.

Whereas Jamie was able to fall asleep almost immediately, Daryl laid awake a while longer. Propped up on his elbow, he gently traced along Jamie's exposed back—lying on her stomach with her face turned toward him. Thinking back to the dark bruising that had once marred her skin, he ran his hand along her side and ribs, knowing that she probably still had ghostly aches every once and a while because of it. She tried to make herself appear so strong, but she was still fragile. Her skin still bruised and her bones still broke, no matter how resilient she tried to be against the harshness of an apocalypse.

Letting his arm give out beneath him, Daryl laid out so that his torso was partially draped over her back with an arm tucked around her waist to keep her tight against him. She exhaled loudly in her sleep, her back rising and falling with the movement, before she fell silent and still once again. Resting his chin above her head on the pillow, he allowed his eyes to close and the fatigue of the night before the catch up to him and the rhythmic pattern of Jamie's breathing to lull him to sleep.

" _Sorry to break it to you, little brother, but she's gone," Merle snapped as he leaned almost casually against the doorway to Jamie's apartment. There wasn't a single sign of her being there, even though it had been hours since Daryl had told her to leave her hotel. Daryl, running from room to room as he continued to call for her, didn't seem to hear his brother._

" _Jamie!" he nearly screamed, slamming the door to her office when he found the same result there as well._

" _She's dead!" Merle yelled at him, receiving a look of hatred and threats from the younger Dixon sibling. "Come on, did you really think she'd survive? This ain't a place for women," he continued, pushing away from the wall and approaching his seething younger brother. "Just let it go-"_

" _Fuck you!" Daryl roared, slamming his hands against his brother's chest hard enough to push Merle back against the wall next to Jamie's bedroom door. "She ain't fuckin' dead."_

" _Of course she is!" Merle yelled back, the anger at Daryl's defiance shining in his eyes. His arms were tensed and the tendons in his neck were beginning to press hard against his flesh. He looked ready to murder someone, but Daryl stood his ground against his brother._

" _I won't just leave here, knowing she'll come back," Daryl declared, moving toward the kitchen of the apartment to see what supplies she had. When she did come back to her apartment they would need to leave town, get to the city as soon as possible. It would be better to head toward where the military had everything under control. Before he could make it a couple of paces, Merle's arm was against his throat and he had him held up against the wall._

" _Now listen to me, you little shit, you're going to do as I say and leave the bitch behind; the only way she's coming back to you is to try and eat you alive," Merle growled in his others face, the stench of alcohol on his breath. "That cunt's gone and made you soft-"_

_A sharp punch to the gun cut him off, before Daryl elbowed him in the face hard enough to send him to the ground, nearly knocking over to small table that he remembered his fiancé to place her purse and keys whenever she got home. "Never call her that," he threatened, wishing that he was low enough of a man to kick his brother in the balls while he was still on the ground. He wasn't Merle, though, and refused to lower himself to such a degrading state._

" _You think that she's helping you, huh? Pity for little Daryl Dixon," Merle laughed, spitting blood onto Jamie's hardwood flooring. "That whore isn't doing nothin' for you, little brother. She would just leave you sooner or later." Pulling himself to his feet, he wiped the blood from the split lip that Daryl had given him before smiling. "You know it, too. That's why yer so afraid; you know I'm right-"_

" _She agreed to marry me," Daryl finally snapped, watching the shock that rose to his brother's face in satisfaction. "So shut the fuck up."_

Daryl was jolted awake when a soft knock sounded on the door to the room he and Jamie slept in, only a moment before Carol leaned around the opening door to glance inside. Daryl blearily lifted his head from the pillow as the light spilled in from the hallway—the curtain to the outside were all drawn closed and blocking out the sunlight to let them sleep.

"Jamie needs to wake up for a bit," she whispered to Daryl, feeling as though she had stepped in on some kind of intimate moment. They had only been sleeping, that she could tell, but Daryl seemed to be wrapped tightly around Jamie in a loving and protective embrace.

"A'right," Daryl agreed, nodding as he blinking tiredly. After finally falling asleep, he no longer wanted to stay awake. Carol smiled slightly awkwardly before she slipped back out into the hall and quietly closed the door behind her. Daryl looked down at Jamie in that moment, watching her blonde waves of hair roll off of her shoulder when he pulled away. Her skin was beginning to steadily lose the bold tan as she wore longer sleeved shirts more and more.

Bending down, he pressed a kiss against her shoulder lovingly as his hand stroked down her back.

"Wake up, Angel," he called to her softly, gently shaking her to wake her up. Jamie made a faint moaning sound, barely even audible, and tried to bury her face deeper into the pillow. "None of that, Babe, up." Moaning a bit louder, she reached over and swatted at the first thing that she could reach, hitting his lower abdomen. "Hey now, doctor's orders."

"Screw the doctor's orders," she grumbled against the pillowcase fabric, getting a smirk of amusement from the man at her side.

"Well, you seem to be alright. What's your mother's maiden name?"

"Wright," Jamie answered reluctantly. "My name is Jamie Knight, soon to be Jamie Dixon, and I am not religious. Happy?"

Rolling his clear blue eyes, Daryl slipped back down in the bed and wrapped his arms around Jamie once more, pulling her flush against his chest. Sighing contentedly, she reached around to throw her arm over his side in a half-hearted way of returning the embrace, before she closed her eyes and was soon lulled to sleep once more.


	43. Distant Dreamers

It was sunny when morning came around, a sharp contrast to the morbid tone that was darkening the hearts and minds of those within Hershel's home. With new bandages covering Jamie's busted temple, fresh arrows notched in Daryl's crossbow and additional ammo in everyone's guns, the group sat down to begin a strategy on tracking down where Shane could have gone. They at least needed to find out if he had taken the chance to go for Randal's group or not. He would be much less of a threat if he didn't head in the direction that Randal's group had gone that night in the town. It was Daryl's job to try and follow his tracks as far as he could.

"If Shane killed Randal, it's more than likely that he's just trying to survive solo now," Andrea said in the place of an introduction. "I don't think that he'd be welcomed into Randal's group if they found out how he got there."

"You said he wanted to do that a couple of times," Jamie mentioned, looking up from where she was curled up against Daryl's side, one of his shirts pulled on over her own clothes to keep her warm in the cooling weather.

"Yea, something always made him stick around."

"What do you mean?" Rick asked, looking up with a furrowed brow.

Andrea looked uncomfortable talking about it, but answered anyway, "He had been planning to leave just before Carl was shot, so he stayed."

"Well, he's gone now. At this point, I'd rather it stay that way," Jamie said in a calm, solemn voice. The others looked over to her, some only briefly before dropping their gaze at the thought of what Shane had done. She had every right to wish the man gone, at the very least. They were surprised that she wasn't cussing him out and threatening to kill him if she ever saw him again.

"Would he really chance coming back here?" T-Dog asked from where he was tucked away in the corner of the room, looking as though he was trying to remain small and unseen.

"I doubt it," Rick answered, looking depressed as the reality of the situation finally set in completely. He had to hunt down his best friend, or at least make sure that he was driven away with no intention of coming back. "But now isn't a time to take chances."

Hershel refused to allow Maggie to help, though she wanted to, and so Glenn instead agreed to be one of the ones that stayed back at the house in the case of Shane getting around the people searching the woods and returning to the farmhouse. Though Rick and Daryl adamantly tried to change her mind, Jamie refused to sit back and made sure that she was going to be traveling out with the others. Hershel cleared her, though reluctantly, to go out even with her head injury.

"You know that if anythin' happens out there, I'm locking you in a room till you're fifty," Daryl grumbled out as he double checked the hand-gun she had just slipped into the back of her jeans, double-checking that it was loaded and the safety was on and moveable until a time she might need to shoot it.

Rolling her eyes, the blonde snatched the gun back, clicked on the safety and tucked it back into her belt before covering it with her jacket. "Daryl, I'm gunna be just fine. I'm going with you and Rick. With the both of you with me, I'm sure Shane wouldn't even try anything if he had the chance."

"Ready to go?" Rick asked as he stepped into the doorway of the room that the couple had stayed in the night before, wearing his jacket with his revolver strapped to his belt. "Andrea and T-Dog are heading out now, they're going to search from North to South and we got the East end because that's where we found Jamie and Randal."

"Alright, let's get a move on then," Jamie said quickly and moved from the room before the two had a chance to try and gang up on her again. She wasn't about to spend another minute in that house more than necessary. Having to sit around and baby sit while the others looked for the bastard wasn't on her to-do list for the day and there was a strong chance that she'd go bat shit crazy and kick Daryl in the nuts if he tried to keep her inside anymore.

Immediately she wiped the thought of a knock to the family jewels since she liked the sex so much that she wouldn't want him out of commission.

Stepping outside she was warmed by the direct glare of the sunlight on the leather jacket she had snagged on her run to the highway with Daryl. Andrea and T-Dog were almost to the end of the field to the far North end of the property's fields. She and the guys would be heading to the West end before they slowly made their way around to the East side; when they reached where Jamie had been found, they were planning on following the tracks for as long as they could.

Rick and Daryl emerged from the house behind her, followed by Glenn and Maggie with Lori creeping in the background. "Are you sure you guys won't need me?"

"No, you stay here and help Dale watch over the house. It's a longshot, but Shane might still come back. If not to do damage than at least go get some supplies or the things he left behind," Rick sighed, looked around the properly. It seemed to all of them like a waste of a perfectly good day; the sun was out and it wasn't too chilled to the point of discomfort. On an ordinary day, they'd be doing as much work outside before the real cold set in as they could.

Daryl stepped up beside Jamie as Rick was speaking quietly with Lori one last time before they all took off.

"What are we going to do when winter hits?" Jamie asked curiously, looking around at the vast yard. Whenever she and Daryl would have gotten married, she knew that this would have been the kind of property that she'd like to own with him. He'd love the space and the distance from a town, as well as the chance to hunt without heading out to a disgusting hunting cabin.

"Wish I knew," Daryl mumbled as he pressed a kiss against her good temple and drew her close to him with an arm around her shoulders. "We'll figure something out." Letting out another soft sigh, Jamie leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes against the bright sunlight, basking in the warmth or the sun and Daryl's body heat beside her. "How's your head?"

"It's fine right now, but sunlight makes it a bit harder. Makes me glad we're going into the forest, whether most the leaves are gone or not."

"Hope you're ready to spend the entire day there," Rick joked as he came up beside them, patting Jamie on the back as she made a face just for the humour. The three didn't hesitate a moment more and made their way across Hershel's vast fields. It felt like a death march, making its way slowly through the property. Jamie wasn't sure what to say, or even if she should say anything. So, instead, she remained silent, flanked on either side by her fiancé and her new dear friend.

The forest was filled with the sounds of animals as they prepared for the winter, though there was a distinct amount of birds that were becoming scarce with the approaching frost. They would have to struggle along even more when winter finally arrived, but there was also a strong chance that the walkers would be slowed down significantly from the cold and snow. If the sub-zero temperatures didn't freeze them, then the thick drifts of snow would.

"Keep an eye out for any sign that someone's been lingering around the edge of the forest. If Shane did come back, he'd stay far away," Rick began as soon as they reached the treeline, his eyes roaming the Earth to see if there was any sign or compressed bushes or mussed dirt and leaves that didn't appear to have been caused by an animal.

"In your personal opinion, what do you think Shane would do?" Jamie asked curiously, moving to walk around a grouping of trees to check the other side.

Rick caused a minute to look around, more than likely just an excuse to think. "Shane's not the person that I use to know, so I'm not sure I can answer that in complete honesty."

"Try," Daryl threw in, his tone bordering on a challenge.

"I think that Shane would have taken off the second he got the chance. I don't know exactly why he killed Randal, maybe just 'cause he wanted him to bite Jamie, but he wouldn't risk going to meet up with his friends. Going from one group with someone in charge to another is entirely contradictory."

"I was wonderin' that," Daryl admitted, his crossbow slung up on his shoulder. "Doesn't seem like the type to fall in line. Why go to a group that would just treat him like a soldier?"

"He's still here," Jamie growled out, both men turning to look at her. She wasn't staring at any kind of evidence that could have shown he had been there, but there was a darkness to her eyes that made them appear more brown then hazel. "He wanted us to think he's gone to Randal's group."

"Why?"

"To scare us."

The sun was easy to see through the dying trees, as well as the later and later hours that were coming upon them. Jamie's knee was beginning to aggravate her, but she kept quiet because of the two overprotective men that she was travelling with. Her luck would probably have them sending her back so that she didn't need to hurt herself more. They didn't hold a conversation for most of the day, though there were random moments of communication, but instead spent their time making sure that they didn't miss a single sign that could lead to Shane.

"This is where we found you," Rick said as darkness began to reach the distant sky. The trees began to create shadows that reminded her of when she was a child and she used to have nightmares of the shadows caused by trees, dreaming that they were long dark fingers reaching for her. She always had to close thick curtains over her window so she didn't see the shadow of a tree against her window caused by the streetlamp out in front of her house.

Looking around, Jamie could see the mussed up leaves and dirt from her scuffle with the Randal walker, as well as where they had kneeled around the body the day before when they came to inspect it for bite marks while she and Daryl had been resting. "So you didn't find any bite marks on 'im?" Daryl asked as he nudged the dead man's leg with his boot.

"Nothin'," Rick sighed in confusion, frowning down at the dead man's mangled face. There was blood splattered all over one half from where the bullet had exited one side of his temple.

Jamie focused on Rick carefully, noticing his tensed posture and his reluctance to speak of it. Though he may have seen confused, she could see nervousness and concern in his face as he looked at the deceased young man. The ex-cop looked wearier than she had seen him since they met, and it had something to do with Randal's lack of bite or scratches.

"You're not telling us something," she accused in a gentle, calm voice.

Both men's attentions turned toward her, before Daryl noticed who she was looking at and he glanced over to Rick with a darkened stare of confusion. Rick didn't seem surprised that she had called him out, but he did look down at the ground in something akin to shame.

He spoke in a husky voice, sounding choked, "Before we left the CDC, Jenner told me something."

The three of them stood in a triangle around Randal's fallen form, their weapons lowered as they allowed themselves a moment to forget about the threat that they were hunting. Dark shadows stretched along the ground like the hands of death, reaching to claim the remaining life upon the dying world. Rick's words spilled forth like a dam had been broken, allowing everything that he had been holding back from the group to spill forth, leaving the couple dumbstruck and speechless.

Jamie felt the sickening discomfort of nausea as she lifted her hands to her mouth in shock and turned away from Rick and Daryl, her hazel eyes widened in disbelief.

"The fuck were you thinkin'!" Daryl yelled a moment later, staying exactly where he was but facing Rick in an aggressive manner. "You can't keep this shit from us-"

"Don't start arguing," Jamie interrupted in a quiet voice, still loud enough for them to hear her in the small clearing of trees. "We have better things to do and it'll be dark in less than an hour. We should track Shane's direction while we still have daylight."

Daryl's nostrils flared like an enraged bull before he scoffed and turned toward where Shane would have had to be in order to tie Jamie to the tree. Jamie and Rick locked eyes from across the space before they turned their attention to the third person in the group, who was circling around the cluster of trees to see which was Shane had gone after he left Jamie to be eaten by Randal.

"Should I have told everyone?" Rick asked with pained eyes, trying to read the expression on Jamie's face.

"I'm not really sure," she answered after a brief pause, "In complete honesty I think that telling everyone the truth would have ended badly, all things considered. Things were taken in a pretty nasty way when the infection first started; to tell them that we're all fucked might defeat the purpose of trying to survive." Smiling sadly, Jamie shook her head as she glanced over to where Daryl was beginning to wander in a specific direction, watching the ground carefully. "I don't know—guess it depends on the person."

"You think they'd actually commit suicide?"

"Jenner did. Jacqui did. Andrea almost did. I suppose…you never really know until faced with the situation, or the chance."

From up ahead, Daryl called back, "He went this way, looks like he was hurt, too. He kept stumbling."

Jamie sneered. "Maybe I head-butted him at some point. Sounds like something I'd do, right?"

"You do that in your sleep if your dreams are bad enough," Daryl grumbled back, getting a dry chuckle from Rick as they two joined the tracker along the path of mussed up leaves and broken sticks upon the ground. Glancing over her shoulder, Jamie felt her stomach tighten in apprehension at the sight of the sun bringing the light pinks to the horizon that told her it was setting quickly.

Daryl continued to track Shane's movements for a while through the woods, turning in several different directions. He must have expected that they'd get Daryl to try and find where he's gone, because there was the distinct feeling of him trying to shake someone following him. They twisted and turned through the trees, following the other ex-cops clumsy trail throughout Hershel's property, until they came to a stream.

"Damn it," Daryl cursed as he crouched at the edge of the running water, trying to see if there was anything left of his footprints to tell him which direction Shane had gone. The stream of course had two directions: one direction led away from the farmhouse, while the other led right back to it. "The mud's settled by now, and he could have gone on for a while in the streams so it'll take too long to check both directions."

Placing his hand on the gun at his hip, Rick was on edge. "I wish I could say that I think he's gone the opposite way, but I can't be honest with myself about what I think anymore."

"Andrea and T-Dog should be back at the farmhouse by now," Jamie threw in, leaning against a tree while she rested her injured knee. "They'll be sure to keep things safe if Shane did go back to the house. Considering that direction is the biggest concern, I think we should go that way."

Daryl straightened up to his full height once more. "We got other problems," he said in a low voice, taken steps back from the stream. Jamie and Rick to turned their attention to where he was staring in time to see at least five walkers stumble past a cluster of trees. There only appeared to be the one group of them, but they could cause problems if left alone.

Rick pulled his knife from his boot carefully, trying not to draw the dead's attention. "They're heading in the direction of the farm."

"Let's not let them get that far," Jamie answered in a voice even quieter than his. The dead weren't too perceptive, but they could still hear and the sounds would draw them in and give the three no time to plan a way to take them out. "I'll go around and draw their attention and let you guys sneak up on them-"

"Like hell I'm letting you do that," Daryl interrupted in a gruff voice, sounding rough as he tried to keep in below a certain level.

Jamie gave a grim smile. "Since when do I ask permission?" she asked in a low voice before she ducked behind a tree and began a wide circle around the group. Daryl shared a look with Rick who looked like he was trying to drown his concern for the injured woman with the amusement that he wanted to feel for her words.

"Bitch," Daryl cussed in an annoyed voice as he and Rick carefully stepped over the creek and began toward the stumping cluster of walkers.

Jamie gave a simple whistle when she was in position, far enough away to give the two men time but still in view of the walkers. Several fallen trees separated the group from her and gave her a small bit of assurance that took the place of what her knife would usually give her. Just as expected, the group turned toward her in something akin to confusion before they recognized living flesh and began to rasp as they desperately moved for her. It looked like they hadn't eaten in a while and were left to wander around as they grew weaker and weaker.

Rick and Daryl didn't hesitate as soon as they weren't facing them and charged forward with their knives out, driving them up into the back of the skull that belonged to the nearest walker. The dead weight went down hard but wasn't spared a moment more of attention before the men were on the next one, taking that down just as quickly. Jamie watched carefully from her place behind the fallen branches and trees, making sure that nothing was able to sneak up behind them.

However, she wasn't watching to make sure nothing snuck up on her.

The sudden cold feeling of metal on her throat causing the blonde to tense up in fear, fighting the urge to swallow the sudden thickness in her throat so that she didn't end up cutting herself on the blade pressing into her skin with just enough pressure not to cut.

She watched as Rick froze after pushing a fully dead woman aside, Daryl kicking the last walker off of the knife he had driven into its forehead. The sickening sound of the blade pulling from the remains of its brain and softened bone made Jamie shudder for a moment. Daryl's eyes flicked in her direction to make sure that she was okay before his full attention snapped to her and the blade at her throat.

"Didn't have to be this way, Rick," Shane's voice drifted from behind Jamie and she felt the intense urge to buck her foot back like a horse to knock his knee out the other way.

"Let her go, Shane," Rick tried to persuade, but Daryl looked as though he was ready to completely tear Shane apart. If it hadn't been the knife pressed over Jamie's jugular, he would already have jumped over the fallen foliage to get to the ex-cop.

"You decided to bring her out here; can't you even keep your bitch on a leash?" Shane snapped, directing his question to where Daryl was tensed and outraged.

"Watch it," Jamie sneered in annoyance.

In response, Shane took a firm hold of her hair and pulled her head back sharply, jutting her throat out further and causing a trickle of blood to begin pooling around the sharp blades edge. She pondered briefly if it was her own blade that he was threatening her with. The thought only served to anger her further and make her want to injure him deeply. Her kick must have left something of his balls intact if he had enough to threaten her in front of Daryl with his own hunting knife.

"Come on Rick," Shane started again. "Aren't you going to try and bargain for her life or something? My freedom for the cunt's?"

"Don't you fucking call her that," Daryl growled out, his hand tightening reflexively on the knife still clutched in his hand. Jamie couldn't see him anymore, the hard pull on her hair leaving her to stare up at what was left of the canopy of trees, watching as the wind blew more dying leaves from their places. The sky was darkening further and it would soon be full night.

"Strike a nerve?" Shane taunted, pulling Jamie more securely against his front in case they decided to pull their guns. Jamie knew that he was aware of the gun tucked in her belt.

Rick took a slow step forward, the knife that he had been using dropping to the ground so that he would show he wasn't a threat to the other man. Shane still tightened his grip on Jamie's hair, however, and stopped the other man cold. "Why are you going after Jay, Shane? We all know that I'm the one that's really in your way."

"That's just how it's gunna have to be," Shane drawled out. Jamie took note of the loosening grip on her hair and paid careful attention to any opportunity that she could get to escape.

"You're never going to get what you wanted, Shane. Screw  _my_ wife, have  _my_  children call you daddy? They'll never take you back;  _she'll_  never take you back. You've ruined your chances of ever being close to any of them ever again-"

Jamie felt her hair was loose enough and quickly elbowed Shane in the ribs while stepping back on the top of his foot with her heel where the steel toe didn't protect. The knife came next when she jabbed her elbows into the nerve in his arm to make his finger lose feeling momentarily. Diving for the knife, Daryl had his gun drawn the second Jamie was out his sight, but when he fired Shane had already ducked behind the nearest tree and taken off at a dead run in the other direction.

"Go!" Jamie yelled from the ground. Daryl tried to protest, moving closer to her. "I'm fine, you two catch up with him," she ordered, waving them off as she picked up the hunting knife that Shane had been holding to her throat. Daryl hesitated a moment more before he turned and ran in the direction that Rick had chased Shane. "Be careful! He took my handgun!"

Wiping at the droplets of blood on her neck, Jamie looked down at her knife. Of course he had been threatening her with her own knife.


	44. Scream Once For Me

There was a steady throb of pain coming from her knee, but Jamie refused to give up and return to the farmhouse. She needed to find Daryl and Rick, because she knew that they wouldn't just return to the others. The last she had seen of either man they had been running after Shane like they hounds of hell after a sinner. She did feel much more assured with her knife in hand, however, so that was a plus.

Slowing her strides slightly, Jamie took a moment to try and decide how far away from the farm she actually was. The moonlight could only provide so much visibility but it was enough for her to register the placement of the fields and which direction they would lead her if she found on. The nearest field, however, wasn't so unoccupied.

Ducking into the brush, Jamie could still see where the two distinct male figures were making their way up the hill of the field, their forms nothing but black silhouettes to her. Even if she couldn't make out details, there was no mistaking Rick and Shane's forms though the silvery light behind them. Rick walked a couple of paces in front of Shane and he was only gaining more ground as Shane seemed to slow to an almost stumbling pace before halting. They weren't so far out to be in the middle of the field, but they were quite a distance from the treeline and Jamie had no chance of hearing what they were saying.

Creeping forward, she kept her feet burrowed in the leaves so as to not step on any sticks or crunch the leaves. Pushing them slowly only caused a shuffling sound that could be mistaken for the faint breeze that had claimed the cool night air. The forest fell into darkness for a moment when the wind blew the misty clouds in front of the large moon, but Jamie was soon able to focus once more and quickly took large careful steps between sets of trees.

Why did Rick have his back to Shane, though? The thought continued to nag at her brain, because she knew that there was no way Rick would have just given up. He would fight until there was no breath left in him for Lori and Carl.

They shifted position then, however, and Shane turned enough for her to see that he had a gun drawn on Rick, but the sheriff continued to remain in an almost casual stance, leaving her to frown as she quickened her pace ever so slightly. It wouldn't do for Shane to turn and catch her sneaking up behind him when he had a gun already in his hands.

Pulling her rifle from off her shoulder she knew that there was still ammunition in the barrel, loading it as quietly as she could while keeping her steady crawl forward. When she stepped from the treelines and onto the cool grass of the field, Rick could more than likely see her by now. He didn't physically show in any way that he could see her, but there was no way that he missed her.

Her feet were silent as death along the grass, her hands and arms steady as they held the gun up toward where Shane's heart would be through the back.

"I thought we worked this all out?" Rick was asking Shane, his voice loud enough to carry over to me.

"Is that what you think we did?" Shane demanded in return, the laughter in his voice taunting and cruel. "We tried to kill each other, man. Did you think we were just going to forget about it all, ride off into the sunset together-"

"You gunna kill me in cold blood?" Rick interrupted, walking slightly forward toward Shane, too filled with adrenaline to keep still.

Close enough to Shane and still unnoticed, Jamie lowered her gun and instead lunged for him, knocking his arm toward the ground. The gun went off and the bullet imbedded in the dirt instead of Rick's head, but Shane was quick to react and Jamie was pushed back onto the ground when her knee gave out from the stain it had been under all day.

"Bitch! You stay out of this!" Shane ordered, turning to point the gun at her. But even on the ground, Jamie was not defenseless and was not going out without fighting. She already had her rifle pointed at his chest, her core muscles keeping her half sitting up while her knee throbbed in pain when it was finally rested.

"You aren't going to walk away from this, Shane. They'll have heard the shot, and they'll come to investigate."

Shane barked a laugh, looking over to where Rick stood with his Colt Python aimed at Shane's head, a sure kill, but Jamie actually had the doubt that he would be able to pull the trigger. Only for a moment, however, because she could finally see his face and there was something there that just  _wasn't_  Rick anymore.

"Who, Jamie, your fiancé? Is your precious knight in shining armor gunna come riding in an' save your sorry ass again? It's pathetic! You're always in the way, always getting yourself in trouble and needing to be saved," Shane spat out, reaching up to reload his gun, Rick taking a threatening step toward Shane in reaction.

"I don't need Daryl to save me, but I know that he'll be there for me. It's you that won't be around much longer, 'cause if Rick doesn't shoot you, I will. And if I don't shoot you, Daryl will. And somewhere down the line, I have a strong suspicion that even Lori would cap your ass if she had to."

Shane's face darkened over with rage and Jamie actually thought that he was going to pull the trigger. Rolling to the side, she could feel the weight of her hunting knife missing from her belt but didn't dare take the chance of checking when a second shot rang out before there was silence. Turning back to face where Shane had been standing over her, he was draped over Rick's shoulder with a shocked stare on his face. Her blood ran cold when the red substance began to leak from Shane's open mouth, his breathing laboured and pained.

She didn't speak as Rick fell to his knees with Shane, an agonized sob sounding from him as he dropped Shane to lie on his back. His hand was stilled wrapped around the hilt of her hunting knife where it was embedded in the other man's chest, blood welling up around the stab.

"Damn you for making me do this, Shane!" Rick yelled at the dying man, his voice rough and  _raw._  Jamie felt like a shadow invading on a private moment between the two men that had once been best friends. But she said nothing, because she knew that Rick wasn't finished. "This is you! Not me! You did this to us!  _This is you, not me!"_  Shane was reaching up and touching at Rick's face and throat, as though he was trying to convey what he wished to say, but Rick gave him no leeway, and his life was fading too quickly.

Pulling the knife sharply from Shane's pectoral, more blood welled up and flooded through the material of his shirt, pouring along his chest with unbelievable speed. Rick had pierced his heart in that one swift stab. Shane reached for him again, his hand bloodied, as Rick continued to yell out  _not me_ , his voice cries of anguish now.

Even as Shane choked on his last breaths, his life taken by Rick, the older man reached for him and grasped his hand, as though seeking his forgiveness in his final moments. Before, Jamie hadn't thought she would care one way or the other what happened to Shane, but the deep rooted emotion that overtook Rick broke her heart, because her friend was shattered and she didn't know if there was any way of putting him back together.

As Shane fell still, Jamie pulled herself up onto aching legs and moved over to carefully take hold of Rick's shoulders. He thrashed, trying to push her away and shrug her off, but she held fast and pulled him away from where Shane stared along across the field with unseeing eyes. Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him down to try and hide him from seeing what he had done, attempting to shield him from further decay.

He sounded like he was struggling to take in air, choking on his inhalations; trying not to cry. With his face buried in her chest, he screamed. Fingers fisted in her leather jacket and blood smeared across her clothes, but she remained still and held him tightly, refusing to let him shut her out as she knew that he wanted to do. That he was libel to do with everyone else.

She winced at his screams but didn't relent, allowing him to cry because she knew that he had to otherwise he would bottle it in and it would consume him. Admittedly, she wasn't sure what to do, because she had never been in this situation. Of all the times she had been there when people lost loved ones, both when they killed them or when others did, it was never when they were not a walker trying to tear their flesh from their bones. She didn't know what to do with someone who had just stabbed their best friend in the heart, no matter the reason for doing it.

Only when the screaming stopped and Rick began to calm down, with his grip on her coat slackened and his breathing starting to even out, did Jamie dare to so much as move. Dare to speak. However, it was Rick who spoke first.

"I killed him," he mumbled out against the wet material of her shirt, his screams and tears dampening the fabric with salty water and saliva. "I killed my best friend."

"He was going to kill you, Rick. That's what he wanted all along. Not me," Jamie replied in a soft, barely audible whisper. "I was a pawn, Randal was a pawn. He just wanted to get to this moment, when you two were alone." She felt like she was trying to sooth a child, and it felt wrong. Because these were not the problems of a child, not the fears or pains of a child; Rick was faced with a reality that could cripple him.

Yet, there was still that moment of the person she had seen that had been someone different than the man she had found bound to the bed because of Morgan's paranoia. Rick had been gone for a moment and someone else, someone blank and cold, had taken his place. And this was the price that he paid for it.

The resulting guilt.

They rose from the ground, neither wanting to look back at Shane. Just leaving him there felt wrong, but at the same time they knew that they couldn't very well drag his body back with them. Even if Rick could carry the dead weight, the reactions when they returned wouldn't be of the best variety. Rick stood lingering over Shane's body, finally looking to his friend's bloody face.

"We have to go back, Rick," Jamie said quietly, reaching out for his arm.

" _Dad!_ "

The small voice caused them both to turn away from Shane's body, looking to where Carl was standing a couple of yards away from them, clearly able to see Shane lying on the ground. Jamie immediately moved toward him, holding out her hands. "Carl, you shouldn't be out here," she began, "Come on, we were just heading back to the house."

Carl was breathing heavily, whether from the reality of what he was seeing or from his trip through the fields to get to their position, Jamie wasn't sure. Rick moved in behind her, saying his son's name in a resigned voice. "You should be back home with mom-" Rick stilled a stride ahead of Jamie when Carl raised a gun toward them, freezing both in place. The gun trembled with his hands as he squinted his eyes, his already heavy breathing becoming shallow.

Rick took a step to the left, blocking Jamie's body with his own as he held a hand out toward his son. "Just put the gun down," he tried to sooth, "This isn't what it seems," Rick tried again, moving to block Jamie more. A faint rasping sound drew the blonde's attention backward, flinching at the sight of Shane stumbling toward them, his mouth open with air struggling through his dead airways.

Before she had a chance to say anything a gunshot rang out and Shane dropped for a second time, making her jump. Turning back, Carl's gun was still raised but it was no longer aimed at them. Moving around Rick, she limped up to his side and gently lowered the gun away from his father, offering a smile of reassurance. "It's alright, Carl, put the gun away."

Rick was moving back to check that Shane was down for good, never to rise again. Carl grasped at her leather jacket for a moment before he pulled away to move after his father, leaving Jamie standing where Carl had been when he shot him. If there was one thing that could save Rick, perhaps it was his son, the boy that he would do any of this for again.

Letting her arm relax, she kept her grip on her rifle strap but allowed it to slip off of her shoulder and hang at her side.

Back at the farmhouse, Daryl pushed his way inside of the farmhouse where everyone had congregated together upon Andrea and T-Dog's return. He had heard a couple of gunshots go off and he couldn't help but to hope that it was Andrea or T-Dog.

"Jamie and Rick never came back?" Daryl demanded as soon as he was in the room, all eyes turning to him.

"They were with you, what happened?" Andrea asked as she rose quickly to her feet, her eyes wide.

"Shane, that's what. He caught Jamie from behind when we ran into a group of walkers, he got away and Rick and I took off after him, but we got separated. I haven't seen them for hours."

"Those shots must have been them," Lori said as she looked out the window, trying to see any sign of where they could be.

"We went back to check Randal's body, there were no signs that he was bitten or scratched. His neck was broken and that was it, it's like he just died and turned," Daryl said as he reloaded his crossbow. "I gotta go back out there and find Jamie, bring her and hopefully Rick back here."

"Need help?" Glenn asked, but Maggie reached out and grasped his arm, unnerved at the thought of having Glenn out there with groups of walkers in the area. Daytime was bad enough but nighttime was just too dangerous for her preference. Daryl declined, however, and moved toward the door with the others following out to the porch in an attempt to find where they could be.

Jamie stood near the fence that separated the fields as Rick spoke quietly with Carl, guiding him forward as Carl questioned him about Shane. Lifting her eyes from the father and son toward the moon, she let out a sigh at the peaceful appearance of it, so deceiving to the real truth that had happened beneath its silvery light. The dark shadows stretching out from the trees seemed more fitting for the night.

"Oh, shit," she breathed out as she pushed away from the fence, rushing forward toward Rick and Carl. "Get down!" she urged, looking behind them. Rick ducked immediately, pivoting to look at what had startled her so much. "Walkers!"

An entire  _herd_  of walkers were making their way across the field behind them, more and more pouring from the trees like an infectious disease. "Go, go, go, go, go!" Rick ordered, holding something out to Jamie as she ducked on Carl's other side, boxing him in between them. Her knife was still coated in Shane's blood as well as the blood of the walkers that she had already killed throughout her trips in the forest. Taking it in her hand, she slipped it in her belt and quickly wrapped an arm around Carl to lead him in front of them and away from the walkers.

Ducking down at a cluster of trees, Jamie used the chance to draw the rifle tighter to her shoulder and instead pull out her knife again, scraping off the blood on one of the trees as she looked around to make sure that there weren't any walkers that noticed them crouched down hiding. "We need to get out of the open like this," she gasped out, trying to catch her breath.

"The house, we have to get to the house," Carl said as he desperately looked around, pressed back against his father.

"There's no way we'll get through that," Rick denied, staring out at the thick crowds of dead people that had rushed so suddenly onto the property. "The barn, go for the barn," he ordered, pushing Carl and Jamie forward while he pulled his Colt from the holster and moved to follow after them. Jamie went to grab one of the shovels near the front of the barn, closest to the doors, and tossed it to Rick when he closed the doors to seal out the walkers.

"That's so not gunna hold," she groaned, leaning against one of the pillars that were holding up the second floor of the barn, her knee throbbing in protest to what it had been put through. She really wanted to collapse and not get up, but she knew that wasn't even a worthy thought to have.

"I have an idea; Jamie, get Carl up there," Rick instructed as he pointed up toward the ladder that led to the second floor. Jamie watched as Rick collected a can of gasoline and began throwing it around the flood, soaking the hay inside. "Here, take this." Jamie caught the small object that he threw to her and look down at the small lighter. "I'm going to open the doors, and I want you to drop that behind me-"

"But dad," Carl began, hesitating on the ladder.

"It's okay, I'll be right behind you two. This should stop some of them from getting to the house and distract others." Jamie nodded her head and scaled the ladder after Carl, pushing at his legs to get him moving as he continued to watch his father.

"Don't you dare hesitate, Rick," she warned, looking him in the eye before she climbed up after Carl, guiding him over to the side and lighting the lighter in preparation. Rick looked up toward them as Jamie outstretched her arm over the floor, waiting for Rick to get in the clear. Glancing up toward her and Carl one last time before he began slamming his hands against the door, shouting to get the attention of as many walkers as he could, Jamie waited.

Pulling the handle of the shovel from the door, he opened the barn doors wide and let in the hoard of walkers. "Come on!" he yelled, challenging, backing away to get to the ladder. Jamie kept the lighter ignited, waiting. Only when Rick reached the higher point of the ladder did he turn back and look at her. "Now!"

Dropping the lighter, she and Carl watched as it fell between the scrawling bodies of the walkers, igniting the hay at their feet. The gasoline burned the hay up in seconds, lighting the clothes left on the walkers and stretching to begin to consume everything they touched. Rick hurried over to where they were crouched and watching. The flames heated Jamie's cheeks, banishing the once cold air that had been biting at her skin all night.

"Come on, we can't stay here," Rick yelled over the roaring of the fire. Jamie turned away from the edge and rushed for the back exit, shuffling along the beams of wood and avoiding the reaching flames. Jamie fell to lean against the wood to try and remove the pressure from her knee, looking between Rick and Carl.

"Rick, the RV!" Jamie yelled, motioning in the direction of the mobile home.

Glancing into the windshield, it was Jimmy that was driving the large vehicle, following Rick's directions to park near the overhang. Walkers were already crowding beneath them and around the RV, preventing them from getting down or for Jimmy to leave. Rick leapt across from the doorway to the overhand, assisting Carl with the short jump. Jamie hesitated as she moved to the edge, leaning her support on her good leg. Rick turned back to her after he helped Carl to move over to the RV, leaping from one surface to the other.

"Jamie, come on!" he yelled. Pushing away from the wall, she kept the weight on her good leg but couldn't change her posture fast enough and landed hard on her sore knee, screaming in pain as she tipped to the side. Rick yelled out and snatched hold of her arm as she tipped over the side, stopping her descent. Jamie grunted with the effort to pull herself back up, Rick pulling at the back of her jacket to get her back onto one solid surface.

"Dad! Come on!" Carl yelled, watching as pulled Jamie to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist to support her before he almost threw her to the other side and onto the RV. She made sure not to take the weight one her bad knee again and nearly toppled over because of it, but remained on her feet as Rick made the short jump to stand beside her and Carl.

"Carl, help Jamie," Rick ordered as he moved toward the back of the RV to clear the walkers away from the ladder. Jamie placed a hand on Carl's shoulder and gratefully used him to relieve some of her pain.

"Are you alright?" Carl asked as he looked up to her, knowing that she had an injured knee but unsure of just how bad it was.

"Yea, I'm good," Jamie assured, making her way over to the ladder. "You go down first, alright?" she said, directing Carl over to the ladder. He went down after his father, taking it slow as the walkers on the other side of the wooden fencing reached for him. "Be careful," she stressed.

"You, too," he returned, directing his eyes up toward her as his father helped him down the last couple of steps. Jamie slipped over the edge after him, taking the ladder slowly. Rick's arm slipped around her waist as soon as she was low enough, taking her from the ladder and carefully placing her on the ground.

She nudged him toward Carl, nodding to him in thanks. "I'm alright, thanks."

They made their way through the field as quickly as they could, stumbling in between walkers and helping to pull each other along. Jamie kept her knife in one hand but started to swing her rifle like a bat to knock the walkers away before they had the chance to take a bite out of any of them. "Go for the trees!" Rick called, pushing Jamie forward when she stumbled on the uneven ground.

The rasp of a walker had her swinging without even looking, smashing the side of its head in with the butt of her gun. The force knocked her down as well, however, and the blood of the walker sprayed across her face, forcing her to close her eyes and try to hold her breath.

She wasn't sure who was walking around her, whether they were walkers or Carl and Rick, but she didn't dare move immediately except to wipe at the gore that was covering her skin. She needed to get it away from her eyes and mouth before she took the chance of opening either. Pulling her shirt that was still damp in the front, she wiped at her eyes quickly before doing the same with her lips.

"Jamie!" Rick yelled over the dead, but he couldn't see her anymore, not with so many of them rushing to get to all of the living beings that were left. Jamie kicked in the leg of a walker that was passing her by, stabbing it through the head as soon as it hit the ground and pulling the dead body on top of her, masking herself from the strangely acute sense of smell that the walkers had. Even with her scent masked, she knew that there was no possible way for her to stay in one place waiting for the walkers to just wander away. She had no other choice than to move while they were even slightly distracted.

Pulling herself onto her stomach, she hoisted the dead body onto her shoulders and back, a mock fireman's carry. Her leg trembled with the effort to keep herself on her feet, her knee almost numb with the pain that came with the added pressure on it. She knew that there was no chance her stitches were still intact, but that didn't deter her.

"Rick!" she screamed, keeping low in hopes that it wouldn't draw attention to her. Some of the dead paused, but continued on when they couldn't actually detect her. Keeping herself up on one knee, she stabbed her knife in the ground and pulled her belt free enough to weave it through the leather strap of her rifle before redoing the belt. She would only use her gun as a last resort and she couldn't chance holding it as well as the walker on her back. "Alright, let's go stinky," she groaned, stumbling onto her feet. The forest thickened a couple of yards ahead and she moved for it, glancing back toward the barn as the wood crumbled and the burning structure went down like a large, decayed body.

Huffing with exertion, she turned away from what remained of the farm and trudged through the leaves, roots and branches. The walker wasn't as heavy as a regular person because of the decayed flesh, its starved body as thin as a skeleton.

_Where's Daryl? Did he get on his bike and leave? They would have left the property, wouldn't they? They couldn't have tried to stay._

Jamie nearly fell into a tree when her foot caught on a root, but her leg was almost numb at that point in time and the jostle to her knee barely jarred her. As she travelled deeper into the trees the walkers became more and more scarce, but the odd one would stumble past her, the odd time bumping into her or the splayed limbs of the dead one she carried.

Only when she knew that they farm was far in the distance behind her, the light appearing on the horizon, did she take a moment to lean against an old oak that supported her weight, taking in greedy gulps of air even if the dead body on her back brought so much stench that she wanted to wretch. The only place she considered to be safe after the farm was the highway jam where they had first lost Sofia, soon setting the events of today into motion.

"Dude, you're getting too heavy," she wheezed out as she finally dropped the body, looking around in the new light for any sign of other walkers. It had been a couple of minutes since she spotting one through the trees, but that had been only one and they had been scarce even before then. The rifle bumped against her leg as she discarded the body, reminding her that there was still ammunition in her pockets. Looking down at the knife that had remained against her palm for the entire night, Jamie couldn't help but to smile pathetically at finally having it back with her.

Moving away from the tree and the walker that she had used as her shield for the night, Jamie moved for the highway, the new weightlessness that had come with the abandonment of the body giving her new energy. She was hungry, thirsty and tired, for sure, but she also knew that if there was any chance of her surviving she had to get to the highway with hopes of the others being there.

She almost wanted to laugh when she came upon the stream that Rick and left Sophia in when he drew the walkers away, and she happily fell into the cold water, reaching down to wipe at her face and rinse the blood off of herself. She didn't want to chance drinking it anyway, so she instead let her body fall into the cold depths of it and soaked herself, washing away the blood and gore and soothing her burning muscles.

Pulling herself from the stream, she carefully pushed the water from her face and slicked back her hair, at the cold air. It bit at her skin and soaked clothing, but she didn't take the time to think on it and instead moved for the highway, collecting her rifle on her way passed it. Daryl's hunting knife was clean again, appearing as though there had never been blood staining its surface.

"Daryl," she called out tiredly, knowing that even if he was at the highway he wouldn't hear her from where she was, but she could almost imagine how he would call back to her and run to try get to her, to protect her.

The sun was beginning to stream through the bare trees, leaves falling around her and crunching beneath her feet. Jamie was reminded of the evening that Daryl and proposed to her on the dock and looked down at the engagement ring that he had found, spinning it on her finger as the sun caught the shined surface.

The sun was reaching to the noon-hour point when she spotted the guard-rail in the distance, one top of the small hill that led into the trees. Pausing only a moment she smiled in relief as a shivered rocked her body tremendously, un-deterring as she pulled herself up the hill with her hands grasping at the grass, not trusting her legs to carry them up on their own.

Hoisting herself up, she nearly toppled onto the ground and ended up dropping the rifle when her knee caught and her leg collapsed beneath her.

"Shit," she hissed out, feeling the sharp pain from the stitches that Hershel had given her before, knowing for sure that one of them had definitely torn this time. Rising unto unsteady legs, she retrieved the rifle.

Rick watched as Daryl pulled up on his bike with the car and truck moving in behind him, covered bumper to bumper in blood from the walkers that they had crashed into on their way off the farm. Carol sat with Daryl on the bike while Maggie and Glenn were in the car. His attention was drawn to Lori, however, when she jumped from the truck with Beth and T-Dog, the brunette rushing toward Carl immediately.

Putting aside any anger that he had felt for Lori before, he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around his wife and son and kissed Lori softly.

"Where's Jamie?" Daryl asked in a withdrawn tone, rising from his bike as he looked around. She didn't step out of the vehicles and she didn't appear from around one of the cars to show that she had been with Rick and Hershel. Rick pulled back from Lori with a tired look, turning his attention to the other man.

"I lost her, when we were running from the barn. I didn't see if she got bit or if she got away, I'm sorry."

"Did anyone else see her?" Maggie asked hopefully, looking around. She hadn't been seen since Rick saw her swinging her rifle at a walker, breaking its head in before another got between them and he lost track of her. He needed to focus on Carl, but he felt guilty that he hadn't protected her better. She was barely walking before she was lost from them, so he couldn't be certain of what condition she was in at the moment or if she was even still alive.

Daryl looked down at the ground silently before he turned away from the others and moved back to his motorcycle. "I have to go back for her."

"You can't got back there," Lori said as her eyes widened with disbelief. "You'll be killed, the farm is completely overrun and even if she did survive you know that she wouldn't have actually stayed there. She'd get out and try to get somewhere she knew was safe."

"I think Lori's right," T-Dog added on as he glanced over to Daryl.

"How can you be sure?" Carl asked as he looked between the adults, worried about Jamie as well. He was still unsure about what had happened when she and Rick were with Shane, but she had helped keep him and his father safe, she had never done anything to tell him not to trust her or not to like her.

"Because I think that's her," T-Dog said as he pointed out among the cars in the distance. Every set of eyes turned in the direction he was pointing, Daryl rushing around the van that was in his view to try and see what T-Dog was pointing at. Others followed after him, the group surrounding the front bumper of the van as Jamie came into view past a flipped car, dripping with water and as pale as snow, but alive.

Her feet stumble to a stop when she saw them all, the rifle that had been hanging from the strap falling to clatter on the pavement and gravel. Rick felt the immense rush of relief at the sight of her, clearly too tired to move much more but alive and appearing bite free. She was soaked through to the bone and cleaned of blood; there were nicks and tears in her jeans that looked like they were from falling and crawling, blood staining her jeans around her damaged knee but nowhere else.

Daryl didn't hesitate as soon as he was assured it was her and she was real, soon running toward her with the rest of the group remaining still as they watched him rush up to their missing friend. Jamie stumbled forward a step before she was taken off her feet, her arm wrapping around Daryl's shoulders in reaction.

Jamie gasped out of pure joy and relief as Daryl's warmth surrounded her trembling body, her tired arms embracing him in return as he fell to his knees and buried his neck in her neck. She manoeuvred her bad knee out from under her and allowed him to sit her on his thigh, his gasping breaths of hot air warming her throat as she pressed the cold tip of her nose against his neck to inhale his scent. He had been sweating heavily and the scent was strong, mixed in with his own musk and the nature scent the always clung to him.

"Well, I didn't point a gun at you this time," she rasped out, her throat raw. "I don't think I can walk anymore," she admitted, hearing his teary laugh in her shoulder. Salty liquid burned her own eyes as she pulled him tightly against her, finally letting herself relax completely. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she shook, finally realizing the fear of nearly losing Daryl again. "God, I was so scared."

"I'm here, Angel. I'm here," he assured, pulling back to look her in the eye. Her lips were beginning to turn blue from the cold and she couldn't stop shaking. They needed to get her a new set of clothes before she caught hypothermia.

Looping an arm through the rifle strap and the slipping an arm beneath her knees, he was careful of her ripped stitches as he lifted her from the ground and rose back to his full height. Jamie didn't fight against him and allowed him to carry her back to the rest of the group, Rick stepping forward to them as they approached.

"Good to see you again, Jay," Rick said in greeting as he clasped a hand on her shoulder, feeling the icy cold of her clothes. "Let's find you something dry to wear, huh?"

Smiling tiredly, she lifted a trembling hand to pat his before she let her hand fall back against her stomach and her shoulder against Daryl's shoulder. The group welcomed her back, Carol and Lori taking off to find something for her to wear while Maggie and Hershel wrapped her up in the nearest blanket they found from a car that was closed up and still in good condition. Lori smiled to her when she brought back the clothes, hesitant and weary but their relationship slowly mending. Daryl remained on guard for walkers, his crossbow quiet enough that they didn't draw the herd back in their direction. Jamie leaned her head against Maggie's shoulder as Hershel checked over her leg, her attention on the man that stood a couple of yards in front of her, his dusty, well-worn angel wings caught in the bright noon sun.

_**The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter for this story, but there is a Sequel! I already have the first chapter for that one up, so just go to my page. It's titled "We Are the Wolves".


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